Deputy fire chief helps prevent bridge tragedy

Firefighters save lives, plain and simple.

Usually by pulling people from burning buildings, stopping accident victims from bleeding or applying CPR to restart a failed heart.

But it was comfort, compassion and empathy that helped an off-duty Milwaukee Fire Department Deputy Chief John Litchford save a despondent woman from the edge of the Hoan Bridge.

"I listened to her, offered her assistance, if there was anything I could do," Litchford recalled of the Tuesday afternoon incident that closed the entire bridge.

Litchford, who serves as deputy chief of the department's construction and maintenance division, would usually take a different route home from the division bureau on Milwaukee's south side, but needed to first stop for a meeting at department headquarters downtown.

Driving south on the Hoan after the meeting he noticed a car parked beneath the bridge's arches and a woman outside of the vehicle crying.

By the time he stopped, radioed for help and approached her, she had already climbed over a barrier and was standing on the bridge's edge.

"She was apprehensive, so I basically just started listening to her to see what she had to say. I asked her what was going on in her life, if she had children, trying to build some common ground."

Litchford was able to keep the woman engaged long enough for emergency crews, sheriff's deputies and an FBI negotiator to arrive.

"He (the agent) was able to build a great rapport with her," Litchford said.

After about 45 minutes, the woman climbed back over the barrier.

"It was a day when all the pieces came together – the FBI, Milwaukee police, the sheriff's, the fire department, all of us working together," Litchford said.

"And ultimately we came up with success."