 “So, how many basements did you save?”, the bus driver asked with a smirk. Without waiting for an answer he ambled off to order a coffee, chuckling to himself.
I glared at the back of his head. You try dumping water on an ancient building all night when it’s thirty-five below and see how well you do, I thought.
Visions of the past 24 hours drifted in and out of my brain, like wisps of smoke. Frozen hose. Rebellious portable pumps. Exhausted firefighters. A mountain of empty air cylinders. And at the end, a heap of smoking rubble to show for it. Firefighting really sucks, I decided, as I paid the fuel bill.
Obnoxious bus drivers are bad enough but then I had to face the sage opinions of the armchair quarterbacks. “You should have just stood back and let it burn.” “You really thought you could save something?” “What a waste of time.”
It’s funny. That’s exactly what I was thinking too. It’s easy to look back and say, “Man, that was a dumb thing to do.” I’m sure you’ve had those feelings. You’re a firefighter. But the armchair quarterbacks weren’t out there at 2 a.m. in ice-caked turnouts. They weren’t in my frozen boots when I looked at my battered crew and said, “We can do this.”
The “experts” woke up in the morning after a warm night’s sleep and yawned over their coffee while my people held hoses with aching arms, protecting what was left.
I can’t promise that I’ll always know the right thing to do. I’m not sure that we will win the next fight. I may not have an answer for the armchair quarterbacks. I can promise that I will try to play safer next time. I am sure that we will learn from our mistakes. And I do know that my crew will give their heart and soul again, even if their incident commander makes a lousy call. I know that selfless volunteers across the country will do the same. I’m sure you know it too. You’re a firefighter.
Courage is saying, “I can”, when you know there’s a possibility that you can’t.
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Wow! That ice sculpture looks just like Captain Wilson! That IS Captain Wilson.
Illustration by Tim Beebe |
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