Megan Raposa

mraposa@argusleader.com

As Dustin Luebke held a hand under the rubble, he thought about his daughters.

A few hours earlier, he took the girls, ages 7, 5, and 2, to school and day care before a day off catching up on housework.

The 33-year-old Sioux Falls firefighter had just finished a 24-hour shift Friday morning, not knowing that his work day was just beginning.

It was 10:53 a.m. Friday when Luebke came inside from cleaning his garage and saw a text message telling him to come back into work.

A building in downtown Sioux Falls had collapsed, and two people were trapped inside.

Luebke, a member of the state's urban search and rescue team, went directly into work, listening to the police scanner on his drive. He arrived from Harrisburg about 11:20 a.m.

He had trained extensively for this moment over his 10 years with Sioux Falls Fire Rescue, but he knew he was responding to a "once-in-a-career" incident.

"It was kind of surreal," Luebke said.

Luebke was one of about a dozen first responders working directly to free 22-year-old Emily Fodness from the rubble. Other crews were working to shore up the collapsed building from the inside, and more still were ensuring the safety of the hundreds who flocked to see the collapse aftermath and offer food and support to rescue teams.

Fodness' mother stayed on the phone with her for hours, as did Division Chief Brad Goodroad, and Fodness was helping firefighters find her in the debris.

"She knew right where she was at in her room ... she really kept her cool, and that helped us out a lot in our efforts to find her," Luebke said.

Those directions were instrumental in finding Fodness, especially through the sheer quantity of building wreckage.

"We were only, at one point, 5 to 6 feet above where she was, and we couldn't hear her yelling," Luebke said.

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Finally, a piece of rubble was removed, and firefighters saw black hair.

They asked Fodness her hair color through the phone.

When she said, "blonde," they realized the hair wasn't hers.

It was her dog, Nova.

Once Nova was safely removed from rubble, Luebke caught a glimpse of a hand, and reached down.

"I grabbed onto her hand, and I said, 'Emily, I've got your hand. I've got your hand. We've got you now. We're not going to let go. We're coming to get you,'" Luebke said.

For half an hour, Luebke lay in the rubble, grasping Fodness' hand.

He could not see her, but he spoke with her as crews used small tools to carefully cut through the mattress that cushioned Fodness from the collapsed ceiling above her.

"She was really calm," Luebke said.

It was during the conversation with Fodness that Luebke thought of his daughters.

He told himself that if one of his girls was in Fodness' situation, he'd hope that someone would hold her hand.

Fodness surfaced from the debris at about 1:30 p.m. Luebke remained at her side as she was carefully carried down to her family.

Cheers erupted from the crowds of people watching the rescue.

Luebke hasn't spoken with Fodness since then.

He knew that her rescue was only half of his job that day, and he along with all of the other emergency responders on scene that day remained steadfast in the search until the body of Ethan McMahon was recovered just before 6 p.m.

"You go from ... excited to right back into work mode," Luebke said.

Luebke continued working until 8 p.m. Friday night, and returned for another 24-hour shift Saturday morning.

It wasn't until he returned home Friday that he realized the collapse made national news, and it wasn't until Saturday night that he saw the photos of himself lying in the pile of splintered wood and drywall, holding tight to Fodness' hand and repeating:

"We're not going to let go."

First responders who helped rescue Emily Fodness: