“The wind picked up, and that thing started swaying left and right,” Bittner, 47, of Dayton, said in an interview Sunday. Guy wires supporting the assembly ripped loose and the metal assembly fell quickly, he said.
“It was like a giant guillotine. It was just chaos — kind of surreal, to say the least,” he said. “That wind just kept howling and howling. People were running.”
As a firefighter accustomed to responding to emergencies, his first instinct was to go to the scene and help those who were stricken, Bittner said. But after he told his two daughters and a neighbor’s daughter who had accompanied them that people likely had been killed, several of the young women started crying and implored him not to leave them, he said.
Bittner called his parents to tell them that he and the young women were OK, then drove them back to Dayton later on Saturday night.
Sara Bareilles, a singer who is touring with Sugarland, had just finished her performance when the cold winds hit with little warning and the sky darkened. According to news reports on Sunday, five people were dead and at least 45 were reported injured.
Bareilles, Sugarland and other entertainers issued statements expressing their sorrow and urging prayers for victims of the accident.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or flastname@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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