For DeKalb Fire Captain Eric Hicks, Feb. 14 stands as a day to learn and move ahead.

“We still have to do our job,” Hicks said, who is one of the 18 members of the DeKalb Fire Department’s first shift. “We’ve trained; you still have to be prepared and ready if and when it ever happens again.”

Shift one was on duty during the Feb. 14 shootings pulling a 24-hour slot when the call of the shooting came in. Almost a year later, the shift reflects on the events of that day and how to be prepared for an event of that scale in the future.

The DeKalb Fire Department was originally called to the scene by the shift commander, Greg Hoyle, who was driving through campus when he saw people running from the building and called the situation.

“In my 20 years in the fire service, this was certainly a very challenging call,” Hoyle said. “It makes you realize just how precious life is and how fast it can be taken away and the effects it has on the victims, families and community.”

Despite the initial overwhelming demand on the department, Hoyle said other responding agencies from the county helped relieve the strain. The department trained for a mass casualty incident in Oct. 2007 and were prepared to respond to a large call on campus.

“Everyone here is highly trained; we handle emergencies here everyday,” Hoyle said. “My guys did a great job that day. [I’m] very proud of my shift and organization. Under these circumstances, some of the guys were in very difficult positions and handled themselves professionally.”

DeKalb Fire Chief Bruce Harrison, who was an assistant fire chief at the time of the shootings, working under former Chief Lanny Russell, said the department had a prepared response to the shootings that day.

“The community needs to understand this was a prepared response,” Harrison said. “We had anticipated, not expected, that we would have to do a mass casualty incident at the university and even speculated about what we would do with a shooting at the university.”

Another advantage the department had came from the credible threat that closed NIU in December.

“We looked critically at the fire and EMS response, because although we were prepared, there is always things we wish we did better,” Harrison said.

Since Feb. 14, the department has not been able to hire any additional firefighters and have cut back on staff for budgeting problems, Harrison said.