After 9/11: Crime and Firefighting in a Whole New World

On Sept. 12, 2001, a day after the worst attacks on United States soil since Pearl Harbor, Americans awoke to a new reality—national and personal security would change forever.

Anthrax scares began to empty out office buildings across the nation, checkpoints stopped vans before they crossed bridges and tunnels into New York City and other urban areas, and the newly formed Transportation Security Administration (TSA) federalized all airport security screenings.

Immediately after, locally, the police and fire departments experienced a surge in calls about "white powders" that turned out to not be hazardous, according to Liz Wylie, the 's spokeswoman.

But while most people think that security issues are limited to major cities, a city as small as Mountain View has also beefed up its law enforcement and how it responds to fire following 9/11.

"Things have changed in Operation Emergency Services regionally and as a nation," said Wylie, who started working with the MVPD after 9/11. "I only know the new way of doing things."

The , which attracts 150,000 or more people, for better or for worse, falls on or around 9/11 every few years. And Mountain View does have other high target locations, including headquarters and , according to fire department sources.

"We are in constant contact with DHS," said Wylie about the communication with the Department of Homeland Security, formed in November 2001 and under which TSA falls. "And we are extremely vigilant this time of year."

Other changes to crime and firefighting includes increased collaboration between different cities to work even closer together in mutual aid than they had already been doing.

"Used to be that everybody had their own language, but things have changed," said Capt. Tim Harvey. Terms became standardized between departments so that everyone now describes the same tools and activities, he said.

"It's like a sports team," continued the 26-year veteran of the MVFD. "It's like when a quarterback tells the team what play to run. Everybody knows what to do."

The National and State Incident Management Systems has helped departments find a common language. Sounds like welcomed news for other reasons, too, as firefighters now have a larger set of skills and duties than just extinguishing fires.

"I think we are expected to be more expert in different things," he said. "It's definitely expanded to include more weapons mass destruction, more chemicals."

Fire department spokeswoman Jaime Garrett explained that now, when firefighters respond to calls, terrorism remains a possibility.

"There have definitely been changes to how firefighters respond to certain incidents," said Garrett. "Terrorism comes up a lot more, especially when [the fire department responds] to an event with a lot of unknowns."

Harvey reflected on the bravery of firefighters who rushed into the Twin Towers to help evacuate workers on that fateful day and said that if he would have been there, he would have done the same.

He also said that if he had been younger, he probably would have assisted MVFD's Chris de la Osa, who helped with search and rescue at Ground Zero with California's Task Force Three.

Ten years later, he thinks fire departments work smarter, more efficiently and do more with less.

"9/11 was the big wake up call," he said.