9/11 Fire Chiefs Traveling Across New York State To Help Educate Fellow Firefighters

When fire departments arrive on the scene of a fire, many decisions have to be made. To save lives, first arriving units need to know what to do and when to do it.

"The first guys arriving on the fire scene have a dramatic impact on how the rest of the event is going to turn out and understanding that role, doing our jobs as efficiently and as quickly as possible and quite frankly with as few possible, is the difference between success and failure on the fire," said Tom LaBell, Executive Director of New York State Fire Chiefs.

Rich Blatus and Tom Richardson are Battalion Chiefs and recognized experts in first arrival unit operations.

The two men were both working on September 11th, the day America witnessed the tragedy no one could ever imagine.

"I got down to the site probably around 11:30, right after the two towers collapsed and then worked for about twenty hour until I was relieved,