Heroic first responders save embryos after Palm Springs bomb explosion
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (KESQ) - We're hearing directly from some of the first responders who arrived at the scene of Saturday's explosion in Palm Springs.
Fire crews found themselves at the site of the largest bombing in Southern California history on Saturday, but that didn't stop them from going beyond the call of duty.
The FBI says the suspect, Guy Edward Barktus, used a car bomb to blow up a fertility clinic because of his anti-IVF and nihilistic beliefs. But what Barktus didn't know was that his plan was going to fail, thanks to several heroes who put their lives on the line to make sure the embryos survived.
One of those heroes was Deputy Chief Greg Lyle, who says he was called in about an hour after the blast went off. He immediately got in contact with the clinic’s doctor, who informed the team about the embryos being stored inside the lab.
That’s when Lyle, along with the bomb squad, was tasked to come up with a rescue plan.
“There was kind of a lot of uncertainty. I didn't feel comfortable in sending my guys in," Lyle said.
At the moment, they weren’t sure if it had been affected by the blast but after careful consideration, they decided to go inside, saying saving the embryos was non-negotiable.
"And so, you know, I said that if anybody was going to go, it was going to be me, the bomb squad technician. He agreed. So him and I decided to go in there. At some point, there was conversation where we said, you know, if we don't try, the bad guy wins,” Lyle said.
The pair found a room where the cryogenic tanks were being stored and found they hadn’t been damaged by the homemade bomb.
Lyle says the team realized the tanks were too large to remove but determined they were stable enough to keep inside; the only problem, the power was out. It's a problem, because embryos have to be stored at a certain temperature in order to survive, they’re frozen in liquid nitrogen at -321 degrees Fahrenheit, preserving them indefinitely.
Since they couldn’t move the tanks, Lyle says that had to get the power back on.
The generator failed, but after a few hours, and a few more personnel, they managed to restore the power and save the embryos.
Lyle said this was one of the most important jobs he’s ever worked on, and that since the rescue, one of the patients reached out to thank him. That patient was one of our very own Palm Springs firefighters.
"I received a text message later on that night from one of the personnel fire department thanking me for saving his embryos, and then in later talking to him, it was, it's his wife that had a scheduled appointment on Tuesday with the office," Lyle said.
"Despite the building suffering structural collapse, this was nothing short of heroic, and I'm so proud of our firefighters," said Palm Springs Fire Chief Paul Alvarado.
Lyle said that knowing he helped out one of his own, made the save that much more special.
"That's when things started to kind of kind of hit home, that, like we were we, we were involved in something that was pretty special. So it was a team thing. It was not just me, if anything, I was just the one that came up with a crazy plan," Lyle said.
"We were able to save all of the embryos at this facility. Good guys one. Bad guys zero,” said Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI in Los Angeles.
Stay with News Channel 3 for continuing coverage on the Palm Springs explosion investigation.
