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Word for Word: Firefighters struggle with loss
The deaths of nine firefighters hits close to home for others.
Published June 24, 2007
Fire is an enemy fought by dedicated individuals of every land, tongue, faith, ideology and age.
Professional and volunteer, male and female, black and white, driver and battalion chief, in small towns and big cities - they all know the same truth: fire fights dirty.
This savage fact was borne out this week in Charleston, S.C. Nine of that city's firefighters died when the roof of a burning furniture warehouse collapsed on them.
Other firefighters note every LODD - line of duty death - in anguished postings online. Here, in their own words, are some of the thoughts they shared on firehouse.com, along with some wisdom about the profession from a New York City fire chief a century ago.
Chris Sherman, Times staff writer
From firehouse.com:
Our prayers are with the department, the families, and the community. A loss like this is so far reaching. They are about the same size as our department. At the table this morning the Truck Captain put it in perspective, we have nine at Station 1 today. "Imagine the loss if none of us came home today."
Tears all around.
The next time I hear the builders associations fighting against codes for sprinklers in truss spaces, I will be deemed incompetent to stand trial for my pending actions.
Rest in peace brothers.
ASHIFT 30
This morning when I turned on the tv i heard what happened and I got cold chills. To think that we could lose 9 brothers to the beast at one fire is very scary. I thought that when The Guest House went up here in Anderson and we lost 11 civilians that was bad enough but for a community to lose those 9 brave FireFighters it has got to be hard on them all. My heart and prayers go out to all their families and to the brothers and sisters that served with them in that department. GOD BLESS YOU ALL!!
Fire4lifer
Just that fast, my Brothers and Sisters, just that fast . . .
As one who has been through a LODD, I offer my sympathies and prayers to the men and women of the CFD and the families of the fallen fire fighters.
I find this speech from Theodore Roosevelt very fitting:
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
Sleep well my brothers, sleep well.
Prd2bayolff
With every member we lose we find the strength to carry on in their names.
With every loss the fire service grows stronger, yet we reflect on our own mortality.
It is with the knowledge of that mortality and the willingness to press on that we separate ourselves.
Our 9 brothers are now a part of the foundation that forms our service and forges our members.
We will always remember you and never forget your sacrifice. We will carry your memory with us into the fight and we will emerge tempered and stronger.
May you rest in peace, may your families be protected and your brothers remain strong.
You did good brothers.
CalmB4Storm
These remarks are taken from various talks given by Edward F. Croker, chief of the New York fire department in the early 1900s:
I have no ambition in this world but one, and that is to be a fireman. The position may, in the eyes of some, appear to be a lowly one; but we who know the work which the fireman has to do believe that his is a noble calling. . . .
Firemen are going to get killed. When they join the department they face that fact. When a man becomes a fireman his greatest act of bravery has been accomplished. What he does after that is all in the line of work. They were not thinking of getting killed when they went where death lurked. They went there to put the fire out, and got killed. Firefighters do not regard themselves as heroes because they do what the business requires.
No matter how advanced we become, we will still need these brave men and women. The Firefighter must, and will, be able to adapt to anything that they face. But, no matter how far we technologically progress, we will still need that brave individual, with nothing more than a hose and axe who enters that burning building to save any and all who are in there. It will always come down to one man, water . . . and courage.
Word for Word is an occasional feature excerpting passages of interest from books, magazines, Web sites and other sources. The text may be edited for space but the original spelling, grammar and punctuation are unchanged.
[Last modified June 22, 2007, 14:22:58]
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