Allison WilliamsChannel 2 News
The chief of the Reno Fire Department is headed to Southern California next week to speak at a firefighters convention.
Chief Michael Hernandez will be in San Diego Tuesday, February 21st, to talk about the local disaster his firefighters and other agencies responded to over the last five months – like the Air Race Crash and Caughlin and Washoe Drive fires.
We sat down with him Friday to talk about why Reno was chosen. "Right now, a lot of eyes are on northern Nevada and how we managed these events because they've faced the same challenges and it's a chance for me to showcase our first response community," he explained.
He also told us "these were extraordinary events and we did an excellent job of mitigating them and it kind of speaks to the resiliency of our community and the resiliency of our firefighters," Hernandez said.
He'll talk about the lessons learned and the importance of being prepared for these kinds of disasters.
Chief Hernandez told us the cooperation between agencies and the way the community rallied together during these events helped overcome challenges and save lives.
But he also says there's room for improvement, saying power outages and failing communication networks provided obstacles that could have been avoided.
Chief Hernandez has spent 30 years as a firefighter and was appointed Chief in 2010.
