John Bagala and Dan Peters were staying at a New Orleans hotel just a few blocks from Bourbon Street when a driver struck and killed at least 14 people and injured nearly 30 people there on New Year’s Day.
Bagala and Peters — members of Marin Professional Firefighters, the local affiliate of the International Association of Firefighters — were in town to attend a union conference. They joined a New Year’s Eve celebration near the Mississippi River and made their way through the Bourbon Street site that would be attacked a few hours later.
“Everybody was here to celebrate the new year,” Bagala, Local 1755 president, said Thursday.
He recalled hearing sirens in his hotel room around 3 a.m. and he assumed it was a response to a fire. A few hours later, he received several phone messages from people who heard about the attack and checked in on him.
“My biggest reflection is what an awful thing to do to a community and what an awful way to bring in the new year,” Bagala said.
Authorities identified the driver as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. citizen and Army veteran from Texas. Jabbar was killed in a gunfight with law enforcement officers, New Orleans police said.
Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, said the attack was a terrorist act inspired by the Islamic State group.
Bagala said the incident happened during a time when many local service workers were going home.
“They found themselves in the middle of the chaos,” he said.
Bagala, a retired Marinwood fire captain, emphasized the challenging conditions for first responders. He said they aided victims in a large crowded area near potential explosive devices.
“The law enforcement response was incredible, the fire department response was incredible,” he said. “Having to deal with that many victims spread out in that area in the middle of tens of thousands of people — that’s as challenging as it’s going to get.”
Several hotels near the scene in the French Quarter were evacuated immediately after the attack.
“Putting a lot of people out in the streets at 4 o’clock in the morning is no small undertaking,” Bagala said.
Bourbon Street reopened on Thursday.
“This is a resilient city,” said Peters, a battalion chief at the Novato Fire Protection District.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
