In two short hours, the world’s premiere city and fire department were challenged beyond anything they could have ever imagined.  While many of the challenges, decisions and responses were well reported and documented, there were a number of ‘behind the scenes’ issues and decisions that were critical to that successful response. 

On the morning of Sept 12^th, I was sent to New York City to lead a United States Fire Administration team to do some of that behind-the-scenes work. I was given a blank check from the Federal government to provide as much assistance and equipment the fire department needed.

Every emergency services leader knows that these problems and decisions weren’t unique to the WTC that day; they occur at any large incident.  The key to success at a fire department’s next large response is exposure to previous lessons learned, worst-case scenario anticipation and defining a process. 

This presentation will highlight a few of those WTC issues and resolutions so that officers facing similar kinds of emergencies in the future can benefit from those lessons learned.