As Firehouse Sees It: Remembering the Past to Never Forget

With 23 years having passed since the Sept. 11 attacks, a new generation of firefighters joined the fire service, with many taking on leadership roles in recent years, while a second generation is entering the fire service today. A substantial amount of those who joined in the years after 2001 have military experience, with many of them seeing combat during tours of duty in the Middle East. This gave them experience with structure, which helped them to fit into the fire service’s way of doing things.

In the past 23 years, so much of what fire departments do has grown. The all-hazards response role expanded from a dozen types of emergency calls to dozens, if not hundreds, when call-takers begin entering the next run. It isn’t necessarily an EMS call. It can be mental health or difficulty breathing or a snake bite, with the CAD showing all of the vital information that was collected through the ProQA process.

Upon dispatch, turnout times are measured, responses are monitored via automated vehicle locating, multiple operational channels are assigned for larger incidents, tablets or laptops are powered up, and a command system is put into place.

When I was in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, I was on scene of a small fire in a factory, at which apparatus and crews from FDNY, Chicago and around Illinois, Montgomery County, MD, and New Orleans worked side-by-side to put out the fire. Prior to 9/11, I never would have imagined seeing that type of response to an incident, but the nationwide framework of emergency response was reexamined after the Sept. 11 attacks. It already was in place on the West Coast, where incident management teams (IMTs) that were deployed brought together officers from all types of agencies. Now, it isn’t uncommon to see FDNY’s IMT personnel set up at the bottom of a California mountain to monitor wildfire resources.

Memories
Yes, much has changed across the fire service, but September is a good month to talk about the past and where we were. Every year, in the days leading up to the anniversary of the attack, I talk to some friends back home in New York: We talk about Sept. 10, 2001, or the day of the attacks, or the days and months afterward. We share stories about the memorials, wakes and funerals that we attended and try to remember which day we attended the most services in a 24-hour period—it could have been a dozen or more if it were Friday or Saturday.

Most important are the memories of friends who were killed, including laughing at some of their antics and that one action that made them who they were: the smile, the laugh, the jokes, the off-color remarks or their outlandish humor. They and their profound effect on us are missed decades later. I often ask, “What would the world, our world, be like if they were still here?” It usually is followed by silence, because it’s too difficult to imagine.

Share or ask
To our veteran readers, I urge you to start sharing those stories of the characters who made your company and department and explain how the past affected the ways in which companies operate today. There are so many close calls and deaths that led to changes in operations and tactics as well as incidents that changed how the day-to-day operations take place. It’s your job to make sure that those memories and those stories that created your foundation don’t fade away.

To the younger readers, I encourage you to start asking questions today. You must find out everything about your department and general fire service history. Don’t Google it, but sit down and take it all in: Ask questions, take notes and reflect.

If you don’t step up to share or ask, can you honestly say that you’ll never forget? That phrase was resurrected after Sept. 11, but the concept of never forgetting is about the brothers and sisters who are no longer here, no matter when they were lost.