LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
DEPARTMENTS
A chief reminisces with his men about the beauty of life, of relationships, of being a firefighter
(Memorial Day Services, October 10, 1984)
Brother firefighters, I would like to speak to you briefly about two things: time and memories.
I look with pride at all of the firefighters assembled here this morning, and I recognize that many of you are young enough to be my own kids. Of course I have noticed this before, it is not a first, but I am still startled at the realization of how quickly the years pass in our fire department. And I remember that many firefighters have died in the line of duty since I was sworn in as a proby. In fact, there have been 273 men who have made the supreme sacrifice since that time. Then I realize, yet again, how short life is.
The thought of how brief our time on earth is was evoked very beautifully and very touchingly in a recent television rerun production of a popular play from the 1930s. In that play, a young person dies while in his mid-twenties and is given the opportunity to go back in time to revisit his home town. At the end of the play, the person realizes, with great clarity, that too much of our lives is taken up with trivial, unimportant matters. With the 20/20 wisdom of hindsight, the person understands, and describes very movingly, how it is that the beauty of life can best be experienced by concentrating on one’s relationships with family and friends.
It is in the relationships with other firefighters that a great part of the joy of being a firefighter will be found. We as firefighters do not claim to be, in and of ourselves, a special kind of people. But we do believe that we are fortunate indeed to work in a very special vocation. When we became firefighters, we consciously chose a life of service and sacrifice. Our work is not concerned with amassing great wealth or obtaining dividends or personal glory. Our work is saving lives. We do not know (in fact, cannot know) the joys that our lifesaving work has brought and will bring to other people.
Nevertheless, I like to think that somewhere in this world there is a young woman who is alive today because she was rescued, when she was a baby, by a young firefighter.
I like to think that somewhere in this world there is a young mother who certainly would not have lived to give birth to her own sons and daughters had she not been saved by a firefighter.
And I like to think that somewhere in this world there is a grandfather who bounces his grandchild on his knee and remembers the time that fellow firefighters brought him to safety from a burning building.
A ceremony like ours today has both symbolic and real meaning.
We see that symbolism all around us. The monument, the flags, and our uniforms give to our city a clear message: that we remember our deceased firefighters, and that we do so collectively as a family unit.
This ceremony is also a very real “marker in time,” for it gives us an opportunity to reflect. For it is a fact of life that, as surely as the sun rises and sets, each of our names will be read here in front of this monument on some October morning.
As I said a moment ago, I am very aware of the considerable age difference between our younger and our senior firefighters. I believe there is another difference, too. Those of us who are older have a much keener sense of mortality. For us, the celebration of death is not just an abstraction or the object of today’s ceremony. For us, the elders, the death of firefighters is a matter of personal experience, and of personal pain. We have been to too many funerals of some truly heroic and memorable firefighters who have given their lives in the war that never ends.
Their deaths were a great loss to us, both personally and professionally. But they are, I believe, still somehow with us. Hints of their spirits remain. I do not claim that I understand the nature of death, because I do not. I do not know if death is merely another level of consciousness. I leave these questions to the philosophers and the theologians. My goal this morning is much more earthly: to understand more fully the importance of our brief time in the fire department, and with each other, and to appreciate the legacy which has been left to us by our deceased brothers. I believe that we must honor their memories not only in this annual ceremony but also by doing our chosen work each and every day with pride in ourselves and pride in those firefighters who came before us.
For myself, I am grateful just to be alive and to be here with you this morning. I am grateful to have spent more than three decades as a firefighter, I am happy to have shared so many years with you and with our deceased brothers. All of us would like to hear their voices again.
But we cannot.
We wish we could see them one more time.
But we will not.
What we can do, and what we do today, is celebrate their memory with sorrow for our loss, with affection for them, and, finally, with joy for having shared their friendship.
John J. O’Rourke
Chief of Department
New York City Fire Department, NY
Compliments to Syracuse’s tactics
Thank you for publishing the picture of the Syracuse, NY, Fire Department in action on the cover of the August 1984 issue of FIRE ENGINEERING. So seldom do we see such good firefighting procedures, and each fireground commander should closely study this picture. The heavy stream application was properly used for exposure protection as the firefighters fought the fire from inside the structure.
Congratulations, Syracuse Fire Department.
Bill M. Strickland Fire Chief
Arlington, TX, Fire Department
A special shot
I have been subscribing to FIRE ENGINEERING for probably 15 years and have seen other Chicago, IL, fire pictures and articles, but the photo on the September 1984 cover had a special interest for me. I was the still-alarm battalion chief at this incident, which later became a multiple alarm, necessitating the employment of a multitude of equipment and manpower. When I received your September issue, I immediately recognized Truck 21 with their aerial pipe in front of the fire building. (If you wondered why it isn’t operating, so did I, but I believe we were moving the apparatus to cover another exposure.)
I’m taking a couple of copies of FIRE ENGINEERING to the fire station to show the other firefighters who were working that day. I’m really not a fire fan, but this is one picture I’m going to frame and hang up. I understand that you are a former firefighter, so I think you’ll understand.
John J. Corcoran
Battalion Chief
Chicago, IL, Fire Department
