Medicine Hat fire marshal recalls 9/11's lasting impact on emergency services

Scott Hanelt was beginning his morning shift at a Medicine Hat fire hall on Sept. 11, 2001, when he found firefighters gathered around a television watching coverage of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center. When the second plane struck, he said it became clear the attacks were deliberate. He recalled Canadian airspace being shut down and a military blockade going up around Canadian Forces Base Suffield near Medicine Hat.

In 2002, Hanelt and retired platoon chief Tom Coffey travelled to New York for the one-year memorial, a trip funded by a local Pizza Hut owner. They joined more than 77,000 firefighters at the event, visited fire stations that had suffered major losses, and were offered free food and transportation once New Yorkers learned they were visiting firefighters. Near the World Trade Center site, Hanelt left Medicine Hat fire badges among memorabilia collected at a nearby church.

Hanelt said the attacks accelerated changes across the Canadian fire service in four areas: operational coordination, hazardous-materials preparedness, technology and communications, and firefighter health and safety. He pointed to a shift toward formalized all-hazards and unified-command models requiring fire, police and EMS to coordinate during large-scale emergencies, along with updated building and fire-safety standards covering structural integrity, mass notification and evacuation procedures. He also received expanded hazardous-materials training in the years that followed.