The events of 9/11 impacted me in several ways. Being active duty in the U.S. Air Force, I knew our deployments to the Middle East would pick up again as things were slowing down from the Iraq campaign. It wasn’t long after, that I found myself sitting in a fire truck in Kyrgyzstan supporting air support into northern Afghanistan for several months.
Being in the fire service for 35 years, changes often occur after major fires or events. Sept. 11 impacted the fire service in multiple ways to improve safety. It changed the way we trained to include a scenario of a mass casualty event from weapons of mass destruction.
It also led to a National Incident Management System to ensure all agencies are operating in the same manner.
Greg Chesser is the deputy fire chief for Boulder City.