California Firefighter Who Saved Lives in Las Vegas Shooting to Be Honored

Cal Fire apparatus engineer Chris Wetzel saved people's lives during the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, and California is about to present him with the state's highest honor for his heroic work the night of the massacre.

Wetzel is among 13 state employees who will receive the Governor's State Employee Medal of Valor for acts of heroism during a ceremony at the California Highway Patrol Academy on Thursday afternoon.

"I've always felt that I just did what everybody else would have done," Wetzel, of Beaumont in Riverside County, said Wednesday morning as he packed his bags to travel to Sacramento.

"To be recognized like this, it's a really big deal," he said.

The 39-year-old was celebrating his birthday with his wife and friends at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas on Oct. 1, 2017, when a gunman perched in a nearby high-rise hotel sprayed the concert site with semi-automatic rifle fire, killing 58 people and wounding hundreds.

After the bullets started raining down on concertgoers from the shooter's room at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, Wetzel covered an injured man to protect him from getting hit again and tended to another man who had blood pouring from his leg.

One of those who perished that night was Wetzel's friend, 35-year-old Hannah Ahlers, who left behind a husband and three kids.

"With this award, I think about her. I hope that she's proud of me, watching over me," Wetzel said.

Ahlers' husband, Brian, will be among those attending Thursday's ceremony. So will Wetzel's relatives and Zack Mesker, one of the wounded men he helped the night of the shooting.

Days after the massacre, Wetzel told KQED he believed the country would get through the tragedy of the Vegas shooting, and that it might bring the nation together.

With so many shootings since that night, including recent ones at a synagogue in Poway and at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, he says he's not so sure of that now.

"I remember saying that," Wetzel, a gun owner, said. "At one point I did think we could come together because of this, but I think we have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of things to address in this country."

State officials say Gov. Gavin Newsom's chief of staff, Ann O'Leary, will hand out the medals to Wetzel and the other employees being honored Thursday afternoon, including another Cal Fire employee as well as CHP and Caltrans workers.

Since the shooting, Wetzel, who works out of Cal Fire's San Luis Obispo unit, has been promoted and he's undergone therapy.

"It has helped. If anybody ever feels like they can't reach out, therapy is a really great thing. It's helped me out a long way," Wetzel said.

He says he plans to return to Las Vegas this summer.

"I can't let what happened on Oct. 1 prevent me from living my life and enjoying the things that I used to enjoy before Oct. 1," Wetzel said.