How long will it take before we forget what happened on Sept. 11? It will be a lifetime for some, years for others. Some will be over the reaction and remorse in months. But make no mistake about the fact that no matter how severe a tragedy, no matter how dire the consequences, the collective consciousness of society can and will forget.

I'm not talking about you, nor am I talking about the firefighters in New York who are struggling to deal with the grossness and injustice inflicted on them. I'm not talking about the personnel who actually responded or who were on standby hoping to be deployed. I'm talking about our friends, our neighbors and, most importantly, the generations of firefighters who will follow us when we retire or leave the service. They do forget.

If you don't believe that this is the case, let me ask you a few questions regarding our past. How many firefighters fought and died on both sides during the Civil War? Can you name any of the firefighters who died in the Dec. 22, 1910, structural collapse in Chicago? Can you name the Los Angeles City Fire Department chief fire officer who was an early pioneer in the development of fog nozzle technology but died fighting an ammunition dump fire in World War II? What happened to the entire fire departments of Hamburg and Dresden, Germany, during that war?

The answers to all of these questions are buried in history books, but many of us have forgotten the conflicts that caused these horrific losses. Some contemporary firefighters will read this column and argue with this perspective. They will say that this time it is different. It was an act of terror, an act of war. Well, so was Pearl Harbor, yet we have reconciled our differences and even made friends of former enemies. Check your living room today. Do you own any items that were made in Japan or Germany? Is the vehicle in your garage made in America, or is it an import from a former adversary? We have become partners with our old enemies — it's irrefutable. How can we be so forgiving?

I don't even want to begin describing the mental defenses that must be built to have a loved one killed in a war and 30 years later buy the products produced in the former factories of war machinery, but we as an open society do that. Civilized people do express themselves in warfare that is brutal and unforgiving. However, we eventually forgive. Amazing isn't it?

Even so, we should never forget what has happened. We should never make the mistake of living in the past, either. If Dec. 7 was a day of infamy, Sept. 11 was a day of vileness! We should never forget it.

Right now we recognize Fire Prevention Week each year in October. We conduct a national firefighters memorial recognizing those who lost their lives in service. During the week of Oct. 7, 1871, there were two major fires. In one we destroyed a city, Chicago. In the other we destroyed a lot of life. The second fire was a wildland fire in Peshtigo, Wis. Both were catastrophic events of cataclysmic proportions. We remember them so we can deal with fire prevention in contemporary terms.

The World Trade Center attack should prompt another form of national recognition. I've heard that there's a movement to make Sept. 11 a day of recognition for the firefighters. I hope that happens. If it does become such a day, we need to remember that it's not a celebration but a reminder that the world around us has changed. The U.S. fire service of the future will not be the same as that of the past. We are now bearing personal witness to what our contemporaries in other countries have been facing for two decades. I've talked to firefighters in Israel, South Africa, Ireland and England. They know that terrorism is part of their inventory of risks.

Although I believe that we should do everything we can to return to normalcy, at the same time we should become aware of our vulnerability and our need to obtain a higher level of commitment and resolve regarding terrorism response. Never forgetting should be matched by a need to never stop learning. I've read ICHIEFS President John Buckman's position paper about adding more firefighters. No reasonable fire chief would turn down additional personnel. But unless those firefighters are adequately trained and equipped, they may not succeed in making any difference in the future.

The stated position of ICHIEFS is to add 75,000 firefighters, about two firefighters per department in this country. How about adding a full-time training officer to every department? Many already have one, but there are thousands of departments with no training staff at all. And even in those that do have training officers, many lack emergency planning staff.

Our strategy in response to this overwhelming event should be based on the fact that in the future we will have more, not less, of the types of terror events that our international friends have already experienced. For example, bombs at bus stops in areas of military installations have occurred. There is a lot of discussion of chemical and biological warfare issues. Places of mass assembly, such as sporting events, concerts and amusement parks, can be the scenes of just as serious a terrorist attack as the one we have borne witness to.

I think it is reasonable for us to expect that some of the very issues which we abhor in the terrorists will be reflected in attacks by racists within our own country. I speak of hate crimes. There will be fire bombings that we will need to investigate. We may respond to emergency medical events that that are the result of criminal acts. We need to prepare for these as well.

This has been a rude awakening, but our eyes are now wide open. We need to start training and preparing for the eventuality that someone, somewhere, is preparing to take lives indiscriminately within this country. In conversations with fire officers throughout the United States, I have discussed what we could and should be doing to prepare. There are a thousand specifics that we could talk about. They range from raising the awareness of single company officers to the warning signs of an extraordinary event all the way to evaluating the security of our infrastructure. Some will heed the warning. Others will revert back to past practices, relying on traditional approaches. If that happens, we will have forgotten.

We need to start today with our recruit firefighters to remind them of Sept. 11. I spoke with a chief prior to the attacks who was very upset about what he considered to be “the attitude” of the next generation of firefighters. As we talked, he expressed concern that the new generation of firefighter is not as dedicated to the fire service as his generation. He believes that they think the real benefits of the fire service are high wages and a lot of time off.

If this attitude is evident in our recruits, we need to disabuse them of it early on. If we want the future fire service to remember, we need to teach lessons in history. Around the time of this conversation, I was reading about the life of Theodore Roosevelt. “Remember the Maine!” was a battle cry for his generation. Our history is full of these battle cries: “Remember Pearl Harbor!” and “Remember the Alamo!” are two. They motivated generations in their time, but they won't work today.

I would submit that the attitude of firefighters in the firehouse or during labor negotiations makes no difference regarding the consequences they experience on the scene. Young firefighters die alongside their mentors and leaders. Our job is to ensure that no one is a victim because we've failed to prepare him or her for the conflict.

In the final analysis, this event will eventually move from front page to the insides of our newspapers. The very same politicians who call us heroes today will use their calculators to question whether or not they're paying too much for fire protection in the future. Some of the people who were waving flags on the streets will experience fires or emergencies, and they may criticize our response and performance.

What's important for us to do as a profession is to look at our response as being like the proverbial fire triangle. We need to rededicate our sense of purpose, reaffirming what we're here to do; we need to remember the reasons that we need to change to cope with the new threats; and we need to reinforce our response capacity through adequate planning and training.

People will eventually stop wearing those red, white and blue ribbons. Firefighters will eventually take off their black bands. The next time that you swear in a group of new firefighters, while their hands are raised and they are prepared to commit to wearing a badge, make sure that they understand the true significance of that commitment.

“Remember the Towers!”

---

Ronny J. Coleman is the president of the Fire & Emergency Television Network and a 39-year veteran of the fire service. He 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.