It was 30 years ago today. Not an historical event, but a memorable one.
These days I often don’t know what it is I have done 30-minutes-ago, so like most of you, I normally wouldn’t have a clue what I was doing 30-years-ago on a specific date. But on May 17, 18 and 19, 1978, I can tell you I took a trip each morning across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge into Virginia with a few friends from the Oxon Hill VFD.
Other than running a 9I on the WWB and then turning around at Route 1 in Alexandria, my trips to Northern Virginia were very infrequent. Unless there was a woman involved, or a trip to the Dixie Pig, many of us often thought of Virginia as a different world. Now, having lived here for 27 years, I still hear complaints from pure-bred Marylanders how they hate coming to Virginia (usually it’s the roads and the drivers they complain about).
These trips had a very specific purpose. We were attending a Program of Northern Virginia Fire Services Institute at the Thomas Jefferson Community Center in Arlington.
While this training seminar always stuck in my mind, for reasons I am about to tell you, the only way I recall the exact dates and its title is that I recently came across the program for the event. Click on each page below and you will get a close-up view. For those who have been around a while, you will likely recognize some of the names.
While I learned a lot from each of the speakers, two people on the program made the biggest impression, both for what they were saying and for how they were saying it.
The first was Emmanuel Fried. Chief Fried, after a career at FDNY and with the Chicago Heights, IL Fire Department, was then listed in the program as a “Fire Protection Consultant” out of his home in Hallandale, Florida. Most everyone in attendance, of course, knew him as the author of the 1972 book Fireground Tactics. We were quite thrilled to have a whole day with him.
His very blunt and common sense talk was a good companion to the book. If I remember correctly, he closed by telling us of a fire in Chicago Heights that he did not attend. Chief Fried explained the tactics were counter to a lot of what he espoused in his book, but he humbly pointed out the fire went out anyway.
The other one who left a lasting impression was Frank Brannigan, who took over for the afternoon of the last day. I was mesmerized by this guy, also speaking bluntly, but at warp speed, as he clearly explained exactly why and how all of these garden apartment buildings were burning. Very relevant stuff.
I heard Frank speak a number of other times in later years. I also considered myself very lucky that he would always answer my phone calls and make himself available for radio and TV interviews whenever I needed him for a story.
While he didn’t physically go in and drag out firefighters in trouble, I still contend Frank Brannigan is a hero who saved the lives of countless firefighters. Until the day he died, Frank clearly sounded the alarm, making sure everyone knew about the various things about buildings that were likely to kill you on the fireground.
