Boone County firefighter killed on duty served community for decades

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Assistant chief Bryant Gladney had served the citizens of Boone County for 25 years but had worked in emergency response in the Mid-Missouri area for more than three decades.

Gladney was killed in a Wednesday morning wreck on Interstate 70 involving a tractor-trailer near Route Z. Gladney was going to the scene of an earlier crash when a westbound tractor-trailer hit Gladney's truck at high speed before hitting a University Hospital ambulance and the vehicle involved in the original crash, according to the release.

Assistant Fire Chief Gale Blomenkamp described Gladney's service to the community as "selfless."

Gladney started his career as a firefighter at station 1 in 1986. By 1994 he was promoted to lieutenant of station 1, and in 2011, shifting gears, he was hired by the fire protection district to serve as EMS education program manager where he trained men and women to save lives.

By 2015 he was promoted to captain, and in 2020 Gladney was promoted to Assistant Chief and asked to lead the EMS Bureau.

In 2021 Gladney was asked to assume responsibility for the fire district's training bureau, serving as Bureau Director.

Gladney was an original member of Missouri Task Force 1, serving as a technical team manager bravely deploying to New York during 9/11 and then Hurricane Isabel in 2003.