According to Fortune, “Power is in business' soul.” I believe that for the true leaders of the fire service, passion would replace power in that sentence. People in the fire and emergency services are passionate about their work. It's that passion that makes firefighters run into burning buildings or weep for a burned victim.

In the corporate world, it's very difficult to explain the passion of the fire service. There are business leaders who find it hard to believe that integrity and relationships are stronger than paper contracts or corporate hierarchy. Look at how many people have left the fire service, either firefighters or manufacturers, only to return. It's tough to quit or stay away from this world. People with passion are survivors — they bounce back.

In this issue's News & Trends, we include the 16 fire chiefs nominated for the Eighth Annual Fire Chief Magazine Fire Chief of the Year Award. The longest a nominee has served as fire chief is 51 years; the shortest term, two years. You might think that most of the more than 60 nomination letters we received would touch on the nominated chief's power, but the comments went beyond that. Take a look at what was said about some of our nominees:

• “Embodies all I've learned to value in firefighters. He is too modest to admit it, but the criteria for your award is [his] biographical sketch.”
• “Definitely has the ability to inspire others to obtain a common goal. To be in his company makes others feel good about themselves.”
• “Endowed with dogged determination, good humor and a lot of good old-fashioned Southern common sense.”
• “Established a new sense of values and professionalism with the department.”
• “One of our nation's fire service ‘go-to guys.’”
• “[The nominee's] honesty and subtle sensitivity to the needs and desires of everyone involved engendered a reservoir of trust.”
• “A very humble and unassuming person.”
• “Empowers the department employees to be all they can be.”
• “Never have I seen a man bring all parties to the table to effect positive change for our city's fire service.”

Of the fire chiefs nominated this year — I've met most of them — there is not an inflated ego in this group. These are not chiefs who flout their title or badge, and based on the letters these are chiefs who have an inner strength and passion that allows them to focus externally and delegate their power so that their officers and firefighters can be the best that they can be.

We salute the nominees for our 2003 Fire Chief of the Year Award, and while we name but one career chief and one volunteer chief, each represents the thousands of fire chiefs who are responsible for the safety and training of more than one million men and women. Be sure to attend the Fire-Rescue International general session on Aug. 23 to find out this year's chiefs of the year.

Also at FRI, Fire Chief is planning to honor longtime editorial advisory board member Charlie Rule, former chief of Manteca, Calif. Chief Rule won't be able to travel to Dallas, so we plan to create a videotape greeting for him. If you'd like to stop by Booth 1507 and send a message to Charlie, please do so. Or if you won't be in Dallas, please feel free to send a videotape to our office so we can include your message.