Firehouse® Magazine has been serving the fire service - for everyone from A to Z, about everything from A to Z - for 25 years. As we reflect on the events, tragedies, training, equipment, apparatus and technology developments that has advanced the safety and effectiveness of the fire service, we would also like to thank our loyal subscribers and advertisers, many of whom have been with us from the first issue in 1976. We would also like to thank the contributing editors and correspondents, public information officers, firefighters, officers and chiefs who have believed in us for all of these years. We have grown together.
We have seen a lot, experienced even more and worked hard to bring state-of-the-art training, strategy and tactics to our readers so they could serve their customers and own brothers and sisters as they would like to be treated themselves.
Each issue of Firehouse® reaches over 500,000 people each month. We would also like to thank the attendees to our Firehouse Expo, Fire-Rescue West and Firehouse Seminars programs held across the country. A great thank you to the sponsors of our annual Heroism & Community Service Awards program, who have contributed so generously over the many years and allowed Firehouse® to present the largest fire service heroism awards program in the United States. We want to thank Firehouse.com, which keeps thousands of members of the fire and emergency services informed each and every day.
The dean of our contributing editors, Hal Bruno, reflects on page 94 about the many fire service battles won and lost in the last quarter century. Founding Editor Dennis Smith reveals how the idea for Firehouse® Magazine came alive on page 64. Deputy Chiefs Vincent Dunn (page 96) and Jim Smith (page 100) each take a look back at how we operated and how we have changed our ways since the first issues of Firehouse® appeared. Battalion Chief Jack Calderone, who we asked once again to explain how fire apparatus got to where they are today, did an excellent job in bringing us up to date in another installment of the evolution of fire apparatus; see page 114.
We present an encore presentation of a series of pictures that first appeared in the first issue. An account of the Plant Shoe factory fire in Boston in 1976 was our very first "On The Job" story. We tracked down two members of the Boston Fire Department who fought that fire and asked them about the fire. The original story was titled, "Send me every engine." See page 88 for extraordinary coverage and photos from Boston Fire Department photographer Bill Noonan.
Clark County, NV, Public Information Officer Steven La-Sky provides a gripping look at one of the worst tragedies we've covered in 25 years, the MGM Grand fire in Las Vegas on Nov. 21, 1980, in which 84 people were killed and hundreds injured. Interviews with members who fought the fire and recall the drama are captured beginning on page 104. We also asked Deputy Chief Charles Werner to review the ways in which technology has improved almost every aspect of the fire service in the last 25 years.
When you look at the varied list, you'll see that there have been many changes, especially for your editor, who entered the fire service in 1972. On page 68 I take a look back at some of the most amazing, spectacular and heart-wrenching fires, tragedies, successes and experiences to which I responded or covered for Firehouse® Magazine since 1976. It has been a pleasure and most interesting to meet and discuss the fire service, fires, emergencies and the future with firefighters, officers and chiefs from large departments and small from all across the country - and abroad. I needed the services of a Spanish interpreter for my coverage of the Dupont Plaza Hotel fire in Puerto Rico and a Russian interpreter when I interviewed the fire chief from Chernobyl. No matter where you are a firefighter you may only be separated by a language. We all do the same thing - fight fires and save lives.
We're glad you've come along for the ride.
