Mike Colón Media

🚇 “Thirty years later, the training born from that day still saves lives.”
In Volume 2 of The Best of Both Badges: The 1995 Williamsburg Bridge Derailment, retired NYPD Emergency Service Unit Officer José Guerra and NYC EMS Emergency Specialist Chris Ebdon look back on the subway disaster that forever changed New York City emergency response.

The 1995 derailment tested coordination between police, fire, and EMS like never before — sparking innovations that continue to shape the field three decades later. From the birth of HAZTAC to full-scale subway rescue training facilities at the FDNY Academy and Floyd Bennett Field, the lessons learned from that morning built a foundation for how major incidents are handled today.

“It’s amazing how far the training and equipment have come,” Ebdon recalls. “Every MCI since then owes something to what we learned that day.”

Outro Song: Don Henley – New York Minute (1989)

FULL INTERVIEW HERE: