My Brothers and Sisters

[M. Barnett]

Yesterday in NYC I lost possibly hundreds of Brothers and Sisters.  
My Brothers and SIsters went rushing in to help the injured and 
rescue the trapped and recover the bodies when the first plane hit.  
Then the second plane hit.  They had no warning, just like the 
civilians that died.  Before the debris stopped falling, they were 
back in the first building and already into the second building to do 
their jobs.  

In the Fire Service we have 3 main objectives on the scene of any 
call.

#1 ... Life Safety.
#2 ... Incident Stabilization.
#3 ... Property conservation.

I think they knew there wasn't much they could do to save the top end 
of the buildings, but they sure as hell weren't giving up trying to 
find those trapped above the crash site.  They knew, as I did 
watching it on TV, that the buildings were going to collapse.  Yet 
they stayed.  They stayed and helped so many people.  And now, so 
many of them are dead.

The Fire Service has lost many of its Brothers and Sisters yesterday, 
and even into today.  I know you are all praying (I use that term 
loosely, as that's not what we all do) for the victims, their 
families and our country, but please, add a special bit about all the 
Firefighters, EMS workers, and Police Officers that lost their 
lives ... so that others may live.

Michelle Barnett, Firefighter...