LAS VEGAS: On any other day, during any other emergency, Clark County Deputy Fire Chief Jon Klassen would tell bystanders to remain calm, stick around and let investigators do their jobs.
Klassen arrived at the Route 91 Harvest music festival minutes after a hailstorm of bullets leveled dozens in the crowd of more than 20,000 people. Many were dying or already dead. And the rest, Klassen understood immediately, needed to get out.
"I was not telling everybody, ‘Stay here, help’s on the way,’” Klassen said in a Thursday interview. “I was saying, ‘Get the hell out of here. Go! If you can run, if you can carry, if you can get out, go.’”
First responders from Clark County Fire spoke publicly Thursday to recount their roles in the most deadly mass shooting in modern American history. While many said they leaned on their professional training, they also spoke of swift improvisation — by themselves and others — in a moment of bedlam.
Belts became tourniquets, folding tables became stretchers, and trucks became ambulances.
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