Crestwood Fire Captain Loses House in Seconds, in Tornado

A captain in the Crestwood Department of Fire Services, Keith Bell, lost his house in Bridgeton to the Good Friday tornado while he and his wife Tammy took cover in the basement.

KSDK reporter Jeff Small posted online Sunday a video of Bell talking about the experience. Bell sported what looked like several days beard growth in the interview.

The couple have lived 12 years in Harmann Estates—an area that appeared to take the brunt of an EF4 twister Friday about 8 p.m.

Bell, a 28-year veteran of Crestwood fire, said his wife went into the basement when they heard warnings on TV Friday that the storm was headed their way from New Melle. She was on the basement floor under a blanket, he said.

Bell said he stood at the top of the steps to the basement, looking at the weather. 

"It started getting really bad. And I slammed the door. And as I'm walking across the basement, my ears pop and I started hearing crashing, and I knew that we had major damage. I didn't know it was this bad," Bell said, gesturing toward the pile of rubble that was his house.

He said he knelt down on the basement floor next to his wife until it seemed over—15 or 20 seconds. The crashing and other noise stopped.

"I went up the steps and looked out, and just couldn't believe the house was just gone," Bell said. "You don't even know how to describe the feeling."

He said they have about an acre of property, and that all the trees in the back yard had no tops on them. 

"It's just unbelievable. It's unbelievable we made it through this," Bell said. "But we're going to make it." He said they would likely rebuild.

Friends and members of the Crestwood fire department showed up early Sunday at Bell's property and set up plastic tarp shelters to protect from the rain items belonging to Bell that they collected from among the debris.