Learning to serve a rebounding city
Firefighter training shows North Las Vegas rebuilding staff
Eas heavy raindrops poured down, orange flames leapt up from a pair of wrecked vehicles.
A dozen new recruits from the North Las Vegas Fire Department immediately went to work pulling oversized hoses and quickly extinguished the practice conflagration, undeterred by a storm sweeping through the region last week.
The exercise taught the new firefighters how to approach the flames, watch for unanticipated combustibles and — most importantly — communicate with one another.
“Training is very fastpaced because you’ve got to take in a lot of information in a short amount of time, and it’s really competitive,” 36-year-old firefighting trainee Jesse Blanchard said, nearly out of breath.
“The physical demands are what I expected,” Blanchard said. “I’m not old, but it’s harder at my
FIREFIGHTERS
going to be good.
That project is going to change some of the activity we’ve had planned but it will not be funded by new money. The improvements will recognize that there’s going to be an approximately $2 billion stadium going in there, and we’ll have to adjust accordingly.
You signed a bill last year allowing the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada to seek funding for a light rail line in Las Vegas. What do you envision?
I think it’s time for light rail in Las Vegas. This is a grown-up city with 2 million people, and we need to recognize that. But this is one of those things where I will rely on the experts and engineers to determine the best mode of transportation and routing.
You’ve heavily promoted Nevada as a place to test electric and driverless vehicles over the last few years. What’s next?
We’re in the midst of a competitive process to be one of those centers that would allow us to take a leadership role in autonomous vehicles. I want to make sure that we’re adding the infrastructure to anticipate the use of autonomous vehicles in the valley and throughout the state.
Additionally, we’ll finish this year with the Electric Highway program on U.S. Highway 95 between Las Vegas and Reno. My goal has been to provide charging stations on all highways in the state, no matter how remote. We need to make sure Nevada is the place where drivers won’t have any range anxiety when they use electric vehicles here.
Any advice for the next governor on how to continue building Nevada’s transportation system?
I hope he or she recognizes that infrastructure is incredibly important to the future of this state, particularly with regard to logistics, because we’re going to be a distribution capital in this country. He or she will also have to recognize that we are one of the fastest-growing states in the country, and we will need the infrastructure and technology to match that.
Charleston crashes
Larissa from Las Vegas has noticed