How has Sept. 11 changed our fire departments? Two years since suicide bombers attacked New York’s Twin Towers, the Pentagon and Flight 93, are firefighters and other emergency responders, our nation’s first line of defense against terrorism, ready? As firefighters around the nation remember the worst disaster in American history, we offer reflections from three leading voices of our nation’s fire departments.

Chief Ernie Mitchell of the Pasadena (Calif.) Fire Department is beginning his term as president the International Association of Fire Chiefs. Chief Mary Beth Michos, FIRE CHIEF magazine’s Career Chief of the Year, leads a large metropolitan department in the outskirts of Washington, D.C. Chief Philip Sayer, Volunteer Chief of the Year, heads a small rural department in north-central Missouri. Each has a different view of the changes taking place in America’s fire departments as a result of Sept. 11.

***

Sayer shares the perspective of the vast majority of America’s fire chiefs who lead small volunteer or combination departments. Galt (Mo.) Fire Protection District has 27 members and serves a rural, sparsely populated district. Small-town departments are the least likely targets of a terrorist attack, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen, Sayer said. The fire department that initially responded on Sept. 11 to Flight 93’s crash in a field near Shanksville, Pa., was a 20-member rural volunteer department, very similar to his.

“I think a lot of us thought it can’t happen to us, and then all at once we woke up to the fact that maybe it can,” said Sayer in an interview for the October issue of FIRE CHIEF.

“I think it made us all more aware of the business we are in. It doesn’t make any difference whether you are paid or volunteer; we are all in the same business. Our customers are the people that we deal with. It drove home the importance of our job and the dangers of our job.”

What happened was a terrible tragedy, but it improved our nation’s fire departments, large and small, in many ways, he said. Are Galt firefighters -- who are much more likely to respond to a grain-bin or farm-equipment accident than a terrorist incident -- any better prepared to respond to terrorism than they were two years ago?

“Yes, we are,” he said. “We will never be a number-one department that would be called to terrorism incidents, but I think that if we should have something happen here, whether it be something at our school or an airplane falling out of the sky, I know we’re better prepared physically, and I think we’re better equipped equipment-wise than we were before.”

***

As a bedroom community to the Capitol area, Chief Mary Beth Michos’ department, the Prince William County (Va.) Department of Fire & Rescue, responded for five days to the Sept. 11 attack on Pentagon and grieved for many friends and neighbors killed that day. Her department has 321 career members and is also served by 12 volunteer companies with a membership of 750.

“Sept. 11 had a big impact on us,” Michos told FIRE CHIEF. “I can’t say it’s a whole lot different than the impact it’s had on almost any department. Number one, we lost so many brothers and sisters up in New York, but in regards to the Pentagon itself, we did provide service there for five days….

Because her department is part of the greater Washington area, the impact has been “pretty significant,” she said. “There’s great expectation on all of us having quite an extensive level of preparedness. So a lot of federal money is coming our way that we’re trying to take advantage of. All of it puts a demand on the system that already had a lot of demands on it.” Her department has doubled in size since she became chief in Dec. 1994.

“And I’d like to think that since Sept. 11 we’re really dealing with a new reality in that our communities and the citizens respond differently to incidents, because there’s that underlying fear that things that used to happen before now can be terrorism-related. We all have to be more vigilant and observant about things, because of that potential of the possibility of some act of terrorism being planned or happening. There are new demands on us for additional training, to learn more equipment, to work more on a regional basis with our neighbors.”

***

As IAFC president, Mitchell has his eye on the national picture. In his installment speech Aug. 25 at Fire-Rescue International, he emphasized that managing the forces of change will be the greatest challenge facing today’s fire chiefs -- changes coming at the local, regional, state and national levels that will directly affect fire departments across the nation.

The current and future strength of the fire service hinges on decisions now being made in Washington on how and where the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Fire Administration and its FIRE grant program will fit in the still-evolving Department of Homeland Security.

“The lasting vigor and vitality of the fire service depends upon our ability to react effectively to the active challenges we face,” said Mitchell.

In addition to leading their departments to preparedness for everyday hazards as well as terrorism, chiefs must make their voices heard in Washington, now more than ever, said Mitchell. “This role is a new part of every successful fire chief's position description -- congressional liaison. The single best response to the challenge of our viability in the Department of Homeland Security is that every fire chief must have, or take the time to develop, a personal relationship with his or her congressman or woman…. Senators are usually less accessible because there are relatively few, but the relationships with them are hugely important too since there are only 100.”

The IAFC headquarters staff maintains day-to-day contacts with both Congress and the various government agencies, organizations and departments, Mitchell said, “but if the fire service is to secure its role and importance within the future of the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense and other federal agencies that, because of new homeland defense concerns, have increasing influence upon local public safety, then that can best be accomplished through Congress directly by individual fire chiefs interacting with individual congressmen and women.”

Mitchell said that there is much work ahead, “but we know that is when we are at our best. We have accomplished much and we can accomplish so much more if we stay the course. As [IAFC] President [Randy] Bruegman stated a year ago and reiterated yesterday, it is a time to lead. And as we look to the future I agree it is still time to lead, and in order to lead effectively in the future we must and will manage the forces of change and continue to lift up the fire and rescue services in the process.”