A deep gouge in a gravel driveway and a smashed well house speak to the force of a propane tank explosion that took the life of a Sturgis firefighter, who perished along with another man in a raging residential fire in this quiet bedroom community Friday evening.
At a somber Saturday morning news conference in Sturgis, authorities identified the firefighter as David Fischer, 43, of Sturgis.
Early Saturday morning, firefighters and law enforcement officers found the body of resident Raymond Joseph Bachmeier, 82, within the blackened rubble of his destroyed home on Tilford’s State Street.
Fire information officer Lt. Jim Bussell, of the South Dakota Local Assisted State Team, said Fischer was among the first Sturgis firefighters responding to a report of a structure fire just after 4 p.m. Friday in Tilford, a tiny rural hamlet eight miles east of Sturgis on Interstate 90.