LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — In all of Southern Nevada, there’s only one bomb squad that serves the entire region.
Leading that team is Chief Jamie Sypniewicz, who has a two decade long career with Las Vegas Fire and Rescue. She tells FOX5 her title as chief of fire investigations and bomb squad commander is very humbling.
However, her success is far beyond just getting the chief title. Sypniewicz is the first woman to be commander of the bomb squad.
“Its extremely humbling I’m the first female bomb squad commander in Las Vegas in 50 years. It’s incredibly overwhelming but it’s so uplifting as well,” Sypniewicz said. “I have a daughter and all the young girls out there that look up to me we are able to do these types of roles.”
Sypniewicz tells FOX5 she never thought she would become a top leader for the department, but she kept climbing the ladder.
“Leadership is my skill so I landed here after a lot of hard work,” she said.
It’s been nearly 25 years of a career filled with different calls and stressful situations, but a call from January 1, 2025 will stay with Sypniewicz.
“That was probably one of the biggest calls I’ve had in my career, because it was the unknown,” Sypniewicz said.
Police say 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger drove a cyber truck drove up to the front of Trump Hotel. In that truck were fire works and a fire arm. According to police, Livelsberger shot himself moments after he pulled into the valet area and the explosives inside went off.
Victoria: When did it hit you that this was no accident?
Sypniewicz: I was driving to the scene and received a copy of the video from security at the Trump Hotel and saw that it was not a accident that you can visually tell from the video that it was detonated from inside.
She said it was a 17-hour day that resulted in her team of 13 members to be spread throughout the strip to look for other possible target areas the suspect may have stopped at.
“I knew halfway there we had more on our hands than what we were prepared for so I ended up calling more bomb techs,” Sypniewicz said.
However, they turned this incident into a major teaching moment for the Las Vegas Bomb Squad.
“We are dealing with a lithium battery that we had minimal experience on because they were fairly new and the thermal runaway and we want to make sure we weren’t dealing with multiple hazards at once,” Sypniewicz said.
Their intensive training, is always gearing them up for any potential situation.
“So it really allows us to learn that any vehicle fire we go on isn’t just a vehicle fire it can be an improvised vehicle,” she said.
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