MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- A paramedic from Murfreesboro was just footsteps away at the very moment when a massive bridge collapsed in Minneapolis.

Video: EMT Saves Lives After Minn. Bridge Collapse

He was in the area attending a conference for Homeland Security and emergency response.

"I felt a rumble. It was a large rumble. I'm in a 14-story building and large rumbles don't happen in 14-story buildings," said Assistant Director of Rutherford County Emergency Management Joe Reed.

At first, Reed thought this was a planned demolition but quickly realized this was a disaster.

"I heard screams, but I didn't associate them with a disaster, because the (Minnesota) Twins were having a game that night,” said Reed. "As I got closer, those screams didn't sound like screams of joy. They sounded like people needing help."

He was in his hotel room, overlooking the bridge when the chaos erupted. As a trained paramedic, Reed ran to help, ditched his shoes and jumped into the water. He helped save lives, including a woman who was thrown into the water by the collapse.

"I turned her around, and that's when we realized she had a broken leg," said Reed.

After this rescue, he then made it to the section of the bridge where a school bus was stuck.

"I heard some of the kids screaming, and the people screaming for help. That's when we went over and helped the kids get off the bridge and helped triage some of the kids," he said.

Reed has been to disaster sites before. He was sent to Oklahoma City five days after the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

"As a responder it changes the way you look at things, and how sometimes you react," said Reed.

If there is one thing he wants people in middle Tennessee to know is the importance of an emergency plan.

He said families need to have meeting points and communication systems in place in case something like this happens here.

Five people were killed when the bridge collapsed. The first funerals will be held later this week.

Dive teams from local agencies, the Navy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are trying to assess the damage among the tons of broken concrete, metal beams and cars still in the river.