Giving support to first responders

NEWTOWN, Conn. (WTNH) -- Dealing with the losses of so many is still difficult for folks all across the state and tonight News 8 is learning more about the first responders who went into Sandy Hook Elementary School as the tragedy was unfolding on Friday.   

It was a difficult situation that no one can truly prepare for or the painful aftermath that follows.

But help is out there. Tonight News 8 met two gentleman who are in Newtown to help police and firefighters get through it.

"It goes beyond their training," Terry Sartain said.

Sartain is a chaplain who has worked with police officers and firefighters in the past.

He's come to Newtown specifically for the first responders, to lend an ear, say a prayer and help console.

"They've acted honorably. They've acted courageously. They've acted with incredible stregnth based on their training but as one officer told me recently, he said, you know, I think in a couple of weeks it's gonna hit me," Sartain said.

He says the folks he has seen and talked to here are just numb and who could blame them, rushing into a scene so heartbreaking, so savaged, it is unimaginable.

20 first graders shot to death at Sandy Hook, 6 adults alongside them.

Those who dedicate their lives to protect and serve, left with no chance to save.

"I think the whole world is hurting right now, I really do and um, but we know that God loves us," Thomas Eastwood said.

Eastwood is a fire dept. chaplain from Calvary Chapel in Southbury. He says sometimes there are no words comforting enough and no way to make the pain go away.

He says the past few days hes been asked, "Why would God allow something like this to happen?"

He says there is no easy answer. No real way for them to process that scene.

"They have lots of experience in doing this but they have never and I don't think anyone could imagine, they have never and they hope they will never have to experience any of this kind of horror ever again," Sartain said.