I STOOD THERE IN FULL UNIFORM, staring at flag-draped coffins, nine of them this time, hearing the solemn tunes of taps being played, listening to the sobs, watching countless tissues dab eyes-a sight akin to thousands of waving white flags. Again, I watched the somber stares of shocked comrades, hundreds of faces belonging to a tight-knit profession that normally exchanges smiles, greetings, and gusty handshakes. Now, there were only frowns, hugs, and the all-too-familiar “I just can’t believe it” head shake.
The national media focused on the tragedy; every news show led with the story of the Charleston, South Carolina, tragedy. Major politicians, whatever their motives, offered their condolences, since this tragedy drew such intense public attention. The media focused on and questioned why the building was not required to have a sprinkler system and noted that the building addition where the fire had started was possibly built without a permit. Trusses have now become a part of the everyday civilian vocabulary-now our citizens want answers to these questions, and they want people held accountable. Can you imagine finally focusing national attention on these issues that the fire service has been warning the public about for years?
The day after the memorial for the Charleston Nine, the story slipped to the middle of the news segment. By now, outside of Charleston, you probably have heard nothing further on the matter. The politicians and the media have moved on to the next “flavor of the month”-perhaps the war on terror, the war in Iraq, the Iranian threat, or whatever Paris Hilton is up to.
But on this day, as I observed the flag-draped coffins under the dim and sorrowful coliseum lights and watched the families in black pass the coffins, gently touching their loved ones for the last time, with the media swarming the bleachers, I asked myself, Why? Why must nine firefighters die in a tragedy before the American public, the media, and the political machine pay attention to the fire service and its issues?
At that very moment, I became dizzy as images flashed rapidly in my mind like an out-of-control slide show: flag-draped coffins, uniforms, white tissues, taps, color guards, brotherhood, line of duty. The vision of the coliseum filled with thousands in fire service uniforms began to blur; it was replaced by soldiers in military uniforms. In my mind’s haze of racing slides, the color guard members no longer held flags. They held guns. Headlines swirled in my head: “Eight children dead in fire”; “Fires raging”; “Fire claims home”; “Homeless fire victims”; “Burned, scarred, dead”; “Bombs, ambush, fighting, killed.” Deep in my mind, there was a relationship, and the circuits of my brain fired rapidly, tying it all together.
It hit me: My God, this was not just a fire service memorial. They were not just firefighters who died fighting a fire! They were soldiers who died on the front line fighting a battle in a never-ending war. This was a funeral for soldiers.
I realized then what the fire service has been doing wrong, why our voice has not been heard, and why the American public pays little more than polite attention to our issues. We must reframe our service and the battle we fight into something with which the American people today can identify, something they deem important to them and their well-being. Just as our service has evolved throughout the years with public education and emergency medical services, so must we adapt the presentation of our mission and its importance to the public’s perception of their daily lives. We have got to remain that “flavor of the moment.”
Our battle is a war, and our foe is what every American has come to know and fear daily, terrorism. Fire is a terrorist!
Fighting fire is, in fact, a secret war raging in every community in America against the terrorist that has plagued our country since Captain John Smith and Jamestown. This terrorist sits quietly in every home waiting for its opportunity. It has taken more American lives than all wars and natural disasters combined. It focuses on the very young and the very old, mostly the poor and uneducated. This terrorist is a weapon of mass destruction that has destroyed whole cities and cost trillions of dollars in damage and destruction.
Why doesn’t the public pay attention to such a terrorist and to the war against this killer of children and the elderly? To a destroyer of American cities? Because the public doesn’t see the connection between fire and terrorists and between firefighting and combat. Thus, the citizens do not see our plight as a war that will affect them. This terrorist is smart. It takes only one or two lives at a time and has been doing it for so long that people have become immune to it. Fire to most people is a fact of life-not a war, not a terrorist.
But the statistics speak for themselves. More Americans died in fire in 2005 than in Hurricane Katrina and all other natural disasters combined that year. More people are killed and injured every year in fire than in the attacks on 9/11. More Americans have died in one year from fire than people have in four years of combat in Iraq. The victims are not being dragged from a battlefield overseas; they are dragged from their bedrooms and homes in their neighborhoods, where 84 percent of all fire deaths occur most often between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. as they sleep soundly in the comfort of their home.
But what dominates the news and headlines? What has Oprah done stories on for months? What do we still hear about during the 6 o’clock news?
We need to think about our enemy and its relationship to what dominates the headlines today and about the opportunity we have to bring a powerful message by reshaping and refocusing the public’s perception of our mission to what we know to be true. Think about the public’s reaction if they saw fire and the fire service in a different context. What changes could we bring about if we could stir public concern and outrage the same way the war and terrorism have?
Fire killed eight children in New York City. Fire killed five children in Pennsylvania. Fire killed more than 200 people in the United States in a single month in 2007. Fire killed 24 children in just one week this year. Fire killed 10 people in a high-rise. Fire ambushed nine firefighters in Charleston. More than 3,600 Americans were killed by fire in 2005.
Now replace fire with terrorist and terrorism. What outcry do you think would result? What type of stir?
The fire service has got to start putting its mission in that perspective. The war in Iraq has caused such a stir in this country that it shifted the whole political arena and politicians are stumbling over themselves to offer solutions. Not a day goes by that it is not front-page news. Ask your neighbors what they know about Iraq and how many people have died. They may not be accurate, but they’ll have an answer, an opinion, and a large number. Fire has killed more Americans in their very homes than the war, yet the National Association of Home Builders succeeded in defeating a major weapon in our war, residential sprinkler systems. Each year, the amount of money available to the fire service to combat fire is reduced. Now, go ask your neighbor about that.
Fire is a terrorist that can be stopped and prevented, but we are denied the tools we need to accomplish that. Yet, Oprah has yet to have a fire chief on her show to discuss sprinkler systems or offer free smoke detectors to her audience. The news media have yet to camp out in front of the home of the president of the National Association of Home Builders to demand answers relative to why this organization is leading the fight against residential sprinkler systems, even when statistics show such systems will save thousands of American lives every year.
As a service, we must begin to draw a parallel between our war and casualties and those that are occurring overseas in the war that currently has the attention of the public, the politicians, and the media. We must generate the same concern, outrage, and attention as the wars on terrorism and in Iraq have generated, to bring about the same public movement and changes needed in our country to fight against America’s oldest enemy, to save American lives. Our citizens need to ask the same questions we ask as we walk into unsafe buildings and demand that the National Association of Home Builders, business owners, contractors, and developers be held accountable.
When we speak to the media, our neighbors, and the public, we must speak of war and combat and a terrorist more deadly than any in history. When you have their attention, tell them about the failed attempts at residential sprinkler systems, staffing, and funding.
Would the public stand by and let Congress cut funding to our troops in the field? Do you remember the public outcry when it was rumored that the Department of Defense was not providing the proper protection for Humvees against improvised explosive devices? That’s what we need!
We must remain “the flavor of the moment,” or more flag-draped coffins will follow. We must properly reframe our war for the public and let the public know of the terrorist lurking in their neighborhood, in their child’s bedroom, in their grandmother’s home. Tell them about our war and the weapons and funding we are denied to stop this killer.
How will we know if we are winning? Go ask your neighbor.
DANIEL BYRNE, a 20-year veteran of the emergency services, is the fire marshal for the Beaufort (SC) Fire Department, where he has served the past 10 years. He is a National Fire Academy alumnus and a volunteer paramedic with Beaufort County EMS. A U.S. Marine veteran of the Desert Shield/Storm War, he is a technical sergeant with the Georgia Air National Guard, serving with the Fire Protection Division.
