BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Their training was primarily in fighting wildfires — vegetation fires in the arid California outback. But when the call came, saying that they were needed to help address the unprecedented terror that had befallen America, they answered without hesitation.
Even 25 years later, the story of local firefighters’ unwavering response in the hours and days after the 9/11 attacks still hits like a fire hose. Several of them attended Friday morning’s commemoration at Bakersfield Fire Station 15.
Sept. 11 anniversary: Nation remembers 25 years later
A mere two hours after terrorists struck the World Trade Center’s twin towers, and then the Pentagon, Assistant Kern County Fire Chief Steve Gage was on the phone. Get your people together, he was told. The nation’s airspace is closed — but we’re flying you to the East Coast.
Gage, now retired, was also the incident commander for one of the country’s 17 national interagency incident management teams. And they’d been mobilized…