Birmingham fire chief speaks out after Saturday's mass shooting

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (WBRC) – More than 50 emergency responders responded to Saturday night's mass shooting. Members of the Birmingham Fire and EMS departments were called to save as many lives as possible.

Chief Cory Moon was at home Saturday night when he heard increasing calls over the scanner for rescue units to come to Five Points South. He said he knew something was wrong and that he had to go and help his people, as well as the victims and their families.

“When I arrived, the first thing I saw was people running and screaming. Lots of tears,” Moon says. “We have 18 ALS transport units on the front lines and five BLS transport units and we had to call every available resource to this incident.”

They've dealt with major scenarios like this before when it comes to hazmat or fire emergencies, but Chief Moon says this is one of the worst cases he's seen in nearly 24 years in terms of gun violence, and unfortunately, he says, it happens far too often.

“It takes its toll on our personnel. Unfortunately, it's something we're seeing a lot lately, and that's why it's important to me to manage our personnel and their mental health to make sure we're doing critical incident debriefing,” Moon says. “It's not something that should be normalized. It's something we see a lot, but it's not normal.”

He shares this message with the victims, their families and the community.

“This was such a tragic situation. I have the deepest sympathy for these families. These families will never be the same again,” Moon said. “We see this far too often, and my question is, when is enough enough?”

Critical incident stress level debriefing will begin this week for first responders who responded to Saturday's shooting.

Moon says while it was overwhelming, that's exactly what the men and women of the BFRS are prepared to do, and he's proud of how they all stepped up to the plate during such a tragic event.

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