There also are some serious consequences associated with these questions. Careers have ended from these events. Families have been disrupted by these events. Assessing the consequences that have emerged from these events is both complex and threatening. All fire service leaders should be concerned about the trend and pattern that these problems suggest.

I wasn't able to tally up the costs of the numerous lawsuits described in my Internet search, but the judgments ran into the millions and millions of dollars. The costs of the associated lawsuits weren't even tallied. Those are taxpayers' dollars. They are the same dollars we're trying to have allocated to provide staffing and program activity for our agencies. The dollars may be transparent to the budget, but they're real dollars.

Today we present our fire stations as safe havens in many communities. Many departments have opened their doors to battered women. Some states have made the firehouse the preferred location to drop off an unwanted infant so that he or she can be placed into care. Many people drive past the firehouse every night, never really thinking about what's going on. They rest on the knowledge that if they have to call on that station, a crew of people are going to show up shortly and do something to get their day back on track. We have the public confidence.

I once wrote that the symbols of the fire service, such as the Maltese Cross and our gold badges with their bugles, contain an unspoken contract with the society that recognizes them. There's an implied set of behaviors that go along with that concept. The culture of an organization that places a high priority on respect, dignity, discipline and sense of duty will go a long way toward sustaining the credibility of those symbols. The opposite results in their erosion.

We can lose credibility in a matter of moments when some type of behavior violates what the community thinks is appropriate. If we want to retain the public confidence, the entire rank and file of the fire service — from the newest probie up to the veteran firefighter who's about to leave the service for a well-deserved retirement — needs to ask the basic question: Am I doing the right thing?

I don't believe that the fire service is doomed to become a sterile and hostile workplace because we have squeezed the adventure and excitement out of it by becoming a humorless, and perhaps characterless, profession. To the contrary, I think that we need to create a culture that gives ample consideration to grace and courage in the line of duty as background for our interaction around the dining room table.

We have the obligation to create a workplace free of violence and animosity. The public may not tell us that this expectation is there, but it is. The community is likely to serve as judge and jury and vote with its support or denial of the fire service programs in the future.

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.