Nightline Daily Email: 6/29
W A S H I N G T O N, June 29 -- As a kid, I got to play with fire. Now my mother is probably going to hate this, but here goes. I had a Tonka fire truck. It was my favorite toy. If you hooked it up to a garden hose, the water would come out of the hoses on the truck. I would put on my red plastic fire hat, and my mother would build small houses out of shoeboxes, set them on fire, and stand by while I put them out.
Needless to say, I was the subject of much admiration and jealousy. I'm not advocating this, of course, but I loved it. I was four or five at the time. I tell this by way of saying that for some reason, kids, especially little boys, all seem to fall in love with the idea of being a fire fighter at some point. I don't know what it is, the hats, the dogs, riding in the trucks with the lights and sirens, whatever is it, that just seems to be the coolest job anyone could have.
But I don't remember thinking much about what they actually did. Once they arrived at a fire, that all became sort of sketchy. Of course, as adults, we have a much better idea. I've been in a high rise fire. I have covered plenty of forest fires, and an out-of-control blaze can be terrifying. But I still don't think that I have any idea of what it's really like for them to go into a burning building.
Now for the most part, journalists love firefighters too. Contrary to law enforcement officers who are always worried about what they say, firefighters, in my experience, are open, and are good interviews. And, if you have to hang out with them for a while, they're usually good cooks. But I just don't think we can ever understand what they go through on a daily basis.
And so tonight we're going to let them tell you. Last Father's Day, what started out as a routine call in New York turned into a tragedy. A hardware store on fire exploded, and three firefighters were killed. The men from their units will tell the story of that fire, and you'll hear the radio calls, and the 911 calls, from that incident. Will we know what it's like to be a firefighter after this? No, but I think we'll all respect them more. True courage, not the flashy kind, is rare and is something to be honored.
