CASUAL FRIDAY: Making sure we never forget that fateful day

Mike Heston was getting ready for work that fateful day and, like many, assumed it was a tragic accident when he saw on the news an airplane hit one of the Twin Towers in New York.

He and the rest of the world learned minutes later it was no accident when another airliner crashed into the second tower on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

Heston, then a firefighter and now chief of the Pullman Fire Department, will take part Saturday in one of countless memorial ceremonies nationwide to remember and pay tribute to all those who lost their lives, including an estimated 400 firefighters, police officers and other first responders.

Craig Clohessy: What were your first thoughts when you learned about the 9/11 terrorist attacks?

Mike Heston: I saw that the first plane hit one of the towers and I’m thinking, ‘Man, how can that happen? How can somebody make that kind of error — was it a medical issue on the airplane or what?’ Then I saw the second plane hit ... and knew that it wasn’t an accident.

CC: As a longtime firefighter did you know a lot of your fellow first responders entering the Twin Towers that morning wouldn’t make it out?

MH: I didn’t think really that folks weren’t going to make it out at that particular time. ... It seemed like just another fire up on top of the building, and firefighters were going in to go knock the fire down and get the folks evacuated out of the building. So it really didn’t enter in my mind that the building would come down.

Our job is to go rescue folks and get them out of the building and get the fire out as quick as we can to save as many people as we can. That’s what we’re trained to do. We do a risk evaluation on that to make sure we’re doing things as safe as we can, but for a building to come down like that didn’t even enter my thought process.

Always the potential is there, but again the firefighters and police officers that were on the scene and security workers that were helping get the folks out, they’re just going into reaction mode, jumping into what they’re trained to do and trying to get the most people out as they can.

CC: Pullman will commemorate the 20th anniversary with a memorial ceremony at 11 a.m. Saturday at Pullman City Hall. You’re one of the scheduled speakers. What words will you offer these many years later?

MH: I’m going to talk about the memorial that’s going on in New York City ... and then talk about the changes that were brought on by that horrific day. Changes from things like airport security to information sharing between the law enforcement and fire agencies, the different wars that lasted decades, to just the country’s personality and change in our freedoms.

CC: Switching topics, it’s been a tough year for first responders and all those in the health care field. With COVID-19 numbers surging again, what are you and your people doing to stay safe as you work to keep your community safe?

MH: We definitely have increased our level of protection when we’re responding to medical calls to protect our workers and also protect the people that are sick out there. We’ve offered up the vaccinations to everyone in our department to make sure that happens. We’ve limited the public access to our fire stations, trying to keep our workers safe.

CC: What words of advice do you have for those who have not been vaccinated?

MH: I would say the ones that aren’t vaccinated to think about getting vaccinated to help protect yourself and protect the people around you and protect the families.

CC: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

MH: The other thing on vaccinations, I would also say our hospitals are filling up with folks that are coming down with COVID symptoms and are sick from that, and most of those folks are not vaccinated. It’s a huge challenge to our folks in the hospital field who are trying to deal with that. So, if we can get some more folks out there to get vaccinated, that’ll help minimize that impact on our hospitals.

Clohessy is managing editor of the Lewiston Tribune. He may be contacted at cclohessy@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2251.

Name: Mike Heston.

Age: 61.

City of residence: Pullman.

Title/occupation: Fire chief.

Family: Wife, Debra; son, Steve (two grandsons); daughter, Kim; parents who live in Pullman.

Education: High school, Moses Lake, 1979; Bachelor of Arts in political science, Washington State University, ‘91; Master of Arts in political science, WSU, ‘94; Executive Fire Officer Program graduate, 2016, National Fire Academy.

Work history: Grant County Fire District 5, Moses Lake, volunteer, 1981-83; WSU Fire Department, student resident, 1983-85; WSU Fire Department, career, 1985-96; Pullman Fire Department, ‘96-present — fire chief since 2013.

Hobbies/interests: Fishing, woodworking, Scouts.