Orland Park fire chief says 9/11 reshaped public-safety training and cooperation

At the Village of Orland Park's Patriot Day commemoration, Chief Pertill of the Orland Park Fire Protection District told attendees that Sept. 11, 2001, "forever changed public safety" by altering training, interagency communication and preparedness.

"September 11 forever changed public safety in this country. It changed how we train, the way we communicate, the way our agencies work together, and the way we prepare for the unimaginable," Pertill said, later honoring "the 1st responders who served survived that day, but later lost their lives to illnesses caused by the service at Ground 0." He also noted his recent appointment as chief in June 2026 and framed continued remembrance as a duty to tell responders' stories.

Pertill's remarks framed the anniversary as both mourning and a call to sustain professional standards among firefighters, police, emergency medical services and military members. The chief emphasized interagency partnership as a concrete outcome of lessons learned since 2001.