P19
September 2013
M
ichael Wilson
was at a
gas station in Hubbard,
Texas, when he felt the
blast. From the shaking of the walls
and volume of noise, he thought a
car had slammed into the building.
Wilson rushed outside but, to his
surprise, the parking lot showed
no indication of an accident.
Then he saw the plume of smoke
in the distance. The thunderous
blast had come from a fertilizer
plant explosion in West, a city
nearly 20 miles away.
Wilson, a Grand Canyon University alumnus and Texas first responder,
immediately made a phone call to see how he could help. Shortly thereafter, he
was at the site of the explosion.
“My first thought was, ‘How big is it? How many people were impacted?’” said
Wilson, who earned an online bachelor’s degree in emergency management
with an emphasis in public safety administration from GCU in 2012. He currently
serves as an emergency preparedness planner for the Heart of Texas Council of
Governments (HOTCOG) in Waco.
“If it did have to happen, thank God it happened when it did, so that lives were
spared,” Wilson said. “Sadly, we lost a number of responders that made the
ultimate sacrifice.”
The fertilizer plant explosion on April 17 killed 15 people and wounded more
than 100 others. The death toll included nine first responders, who arrived on
location to extinguish a fire at the facility. Several buildings, including a school
and apartment complex near the plant, were destroyed. Wilson’s team was one
of the first on the site after the explosion.
Wilson, 28, who goes by “Boyce,” held three different jobs during the multiple-
day relief effort while working out of a mobile communications trailer near
the plant site. He served as logistics section chief, organizing volunteers and
supplies, on the night of the explosion before transitioning to documentation
unit leader and then planning section chief over the next few days.
After the initial response to the explosion, his core duties included facilitating
the city’s recovery efforts and recording documentation of the event. Wilson
credits the learning community fostered by GCU’s online degree programs. He
said his ability to interact with, and learn from, his fellow classmates provided
the communication techniques necessary to succeed at his position.
He said his online professors’ first-hand experience prepared him for situations
such as this one.
“A lot of the operational stuff is learned from training, but the online classes
at GCU prepared me for when we had to bring in outside agencies and how
to communicate effectively with them,” said Wilson, who returned to GCU to
pursue an online master’s degree in leadership with an emphasis in disaster
preparedness and executive fire leadership in 2013.
Wilson was raised in a low-income household but overcame adversity to
graduate high school with honors and join the Marines. He was granted an
honorable military discharge in 2005 to take care of his ailing mother. He
began working at HOTCOG when he was only 23. He is one of the youngest
emergency preparedness planners in the state of Texas.
Wilson’s wife,
Alicia
, said she was amazed at the level of responsibility her
husband took on. The level of knowledge he possessed and his handling of
the situation inspired her to pursue her own public safety degree with GCU.
“To see the mayor and city council and all those people coming to him and
asking him what to do was really inspiring,” she said. “To know where he came
from and see what he has accomplished, he is pretty amazing.”
■
In wake of Texas explosion,
first responder proved steady
CALMING FORCE
– by Cooper Nelson
The West Rest Haven Nursing Home in West, Texas, collapsed the day after an
April 17 fertilizer plant explosion. Michael Wilson (inset), who earned a degree in
emergency management from GCU in 2012, helped in several roles in the relief effort.
Photos courtesy of Michael Wilson
alumni
