Not long after Greg Altland was promoted to assistant fire chief, commanding a shift of firefighters in York City's fire department, he found himself standing on Texas Avenue at the top of a hill at the city's north end.
From that vantage point, he could see much of the city. At night, it's a beautiful view, the lights like stars, the universe being the 5.3 square miles that encompass the City of York. He thought, "I'm in charge to keep everybody in this city safe tonight and to make sure all of the firefighters on my shift get to go home." "It's my job to keep them safe," Altland, a 27-year veteran of the fire service, said Friday, a little more than a week after two firefighters died in a fire in an old factory in the city.