In the course of firehouse daily life, individuals and organizations create and keep information about their personal and business activities in a very fragile manner. And we are starting to lose a large number of experienced people and their stories are going with them. If we are not careful, much of the history from the last 50 years is going to disappear in the next 10 to 15.

Fire departments should preserve their histories. Every fire department should have an official archive — and every department should have a historian.

For the purpose of this column the word archive refers to the very perishable written or printed documentation that is maintained by a department. This is not the same as a firefighters' museum. An archive preserves primary-source documents that accumulate over the course of an organization's lifetime. A museum usually focuses on the hardware.

For example, an individual's archive may contain personal letters, papers, photographs, drafts of reports, computer files, scrapbooks, financial records, diaries or any other kind of documentary materials created or collected by the individual — regardless of media or format. An organization's archive similarly tends to contain different types of records, such as administrative files, business and incident records, memos, official correspondence, meeting minutes, and so on.

In general, archives of any individual or organization consist of records that have been selected especially for permanent or long-term preservation, due to their enduring research value. Archival records are normally unpublished and almost always are unique, unlike books or magazines, in which many identical copies exist. Archival management is essential for effective day-to-day organizational decision-making, and even for the survival of organizations.

Does your department have an archive? Most fire agencies do not have an official approach to developing an archive for its perishable items. Instead, they have a timetable for the disposal of materials, and when time is up everything goes. Moreover, when individuals retire or leave the fire service, their records and correspondence get tossed into the trash. If you don't have an archive, maybe it is because you have no historian.

The historian is important to help create an archive. The historian is not just a teller of stories but rather the protector of them. Far too many fire departments have neglected to capture their history because they are so busy doing things that they didn't take the time to document their activities.

The historian studies and writes about the history of an organization and is usually regarded as an authority on the facts of the department. Historians are concerned with the continuous, systematic narrative and research of past events within the organization, as well as the study of all events in time from the date the organization began.

History is the study of the past, with special attention to the written record of the activities of people involved in the organization over time. It is a field of research that often uses a narrative to examine and analyze the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns of cause and effect that determine events. Historians debate the nature of history and the lessons history teaches.

Now is the time for all fire departments to look backward and ask themselves this question: how much do you know about your own history? What lessons are there to be gained from reviewing your own history? What will your future firefighters know about how your organization came to be?

Again, every fire department needs at least one person who is an archivist of the bits and pieces that often get left out of history. The department needs a historian. These roles can be combined into one individual or, better yet, the organization can create a history committee. The activities of such persons would include the collection of memorandums and letters, old photographs, and other materials that were right in front of the department's own nose, but often were tossed away.

Does your fire department have a written history? If the answer is yes, how long ago was it written? Is there a plan in place for updating it? What has happened since the last history document was prepared? Do you have a place to preserve documents that are important once their legal retention requirements have expired?

If you don't have any desire to be the historian or the archivist, then you could contribute to them. If you think that you have the capacity to be the historian, don't wait around until the fire department appoints you to that position. Candidly, most departments don't think about making this an official function until it is far too late.

Contact the Society of American Archivists (866-722-7858) for additional information on how to create a departmental archive. The society is a source of information about archival education, local and regional professional associations, and archival specialists.

The 20th century philosopher George Santayana once famously said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." That same admonition applies to fire agencies as they grow older and more mature. We ought to be remembering the past for its lessons, but also for its contributions to making your organization what it is today.

Read the sidebar "Archival Tips" for more information on how to archive your fire department's history.

With more than 40 years in the fire service, Ronny J. Coleman has served as fire chief in Fullerton and San Clemente, Calif., and was the fire marshal of the state of California from 1992 to 1999. He is a certified fire chief and a master instructor in the California Fire Service Training and Education System. A Fellow of the Institution of Fire Engineers, he has an associate's degree in fire science, a bachelor's degree in political science and a master's degree in vocational education.

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