How many unsung heroes have you lost? I’ve lost two in the past six weeks. Both were long-serving firefighters in their mid-50s who died of cancer. Like cardiac disease, cancer is much more prevalent in firefighters than in the general population. While the word has been out for sometime for we firefighters to take care of our hearts, the word is only now getting out on the types of melanoma and cancers that are taking their early toll.
Let me tell you about my unsung heroes.
Greg Snyder and I started as volunteers at the Colerain Township (Ohio) Fire Department within one year of each other. Greg rose to the rank of lieutenant and spent close to 20 years fighting fires with me. It may be trite, but he was more than another brother to both me and my wife, Diana.
I remember one incident when Capt. Tom Mann (who died of cancer, as well), Greg and I were first-in on a working residential fire. A gasoline-driven fire had engulfed the entire living room, ignited parts of the kitchen by radiant heat, and was working its way down a hallway toward an occupied bedroom on the first floor. We made it to the opposite end of the hallway and, while the captain and I held the fire in check with a hand line, Greg made his way into the bedroom and saved the occupants who were about to pass out from smoke inhalation. There were no honors for Greg then or for the countless other times he placed his life on the line. Eventually Greg left the department to become Colerain’s Parks and Services Director and served there for another 10 years.
When I took over as fire chief at the Wyoming (Ohio) Fire-EMS Department, I met John Leavell, the department’s chief engineer. No one became a driver or pump or aerial truck operator without being cleared by John.
But John was much more than that. He also a supervisor at the Wyoming Water Works. Our water system is actually two systems, a high side and a low side loosely tied together. Because of the hills and ravines in the area, water mains are supplied either from the pumping station or from the water reservoir and tower. John knew the system of 4-, 6-, 8-, 10- and 18-inch mains like the back of his hand. On major fires, John regularly would direct the engines getting secondary water to the best hydrants.
When we first decided to work on bettering our ISO rating, John created a simplified series of overlays that showed the grid system of mains, when or if they intersected, and which hydrants in the area could be counted on for the best flows. Company and staff officers refer to these maps daily when responding to fire scenes. Because of his foresight, we’ve been able to overcome most of the limitations inherent to our water system.
For 35 years, John’s soft-spoken presence helped shape our department and our people. John left the water works earlier this year, but remained on as a volunteer firefighter throughout his several bouts with cancer.
John and Greg lived within 20 miles of each other, but to my knowledge never met. Their link in life was that they both were firefighters and unsung heroes. I hope at last they’ve met and have begun to swap stories.
September 27th, 2007 @ 6:04 pm
Bob, I am surprised by your suggestion that U.S. firefighters suffer higher rates of mortality from cancer and heart disease than the general population. A few years ago, the evidence indicated that with a few very rare exceptions firefighters did not have an increased risk of premature death due to these conditions compared to the age-adjusted adult male cohort.
Several large epidemiological studies with which I am familiar indicate that firefighters enjoy a strong “healthy worker” effect that diminishes with age and years of service. Ultimately, firefighters’ fitness and health decays to a point where their mortality risk at and beyond retirement runs roughly equal to their age-adjusted cohort in the general population. In other words, firefighters’ virile self-image is inconsistent with the reality of their declining physical fitness and health.
The large proportion of line of duty deaths resulting from cardiac arrest (about 48% on average) make it seem that heart disease among firefighters is more prevalent than it is. Our heightened sensitivity to these deaths and our self-image seem to dispose us to see premature firefighter deaths due to cancer and heart disease as something unusual, which in turn makes us suspect some insidious cause related to our occupation. Very little evidence seems to exist to support this premise.
I think we do ourselves and firefighters generally a disservice by suggesting that we are different. Firefighters are no more or less susceptible to the ravages of age and infirmity than anyone else. If we take better care of ourselves and keep up the routines that helped us become firefighters in the first place, we will live longer and better. If we don’t we shouldn’t be surprised when we die just like other people. This should not give us an excuse to demand different, much less special treatment.
Your friends were without doubt very special people, and dear to you, their families, and many friends and colleagues. Your article described the admirable qualities that made them special. The diseases that claimed their lives did not define them nor should these conditions distinguish for us the reasons we should hold their memories dear.