Foreword
THE ART OF fighting fires has long been a topic of many accomplished authors. They teach skills needed to do the job, but is that enough? Anyone who has listened to a Burt Clark lecture or read one of his articles will know that IT IS NOT ENOUGH. Burt has made it his life’s work to examine the culture, test the theories, and document ways firefighters die needlessly. Saving lives is not only what he does but who he is and finding ways to keep firefighters safe is his passion.
Burt causes us to take stock of our lives, what we want to do, and how we do it. There is no news coverage of firefighters doing the right thing, nobody give awards for it…so why does it matter? Ask any mother, wife, or child who experienced a line of duty death. To know that their firefighters died
simply because they did not buckle a seat belt, or a chin strap, is beyond devastating.
I will always wonder had this book been published six years ago, would Robin still be alive? We have to make this commitment for our own families. Robin’s girls, Sierra and Courtney, know the cost of not doing so.
—Arlene Zang, FF/P, proud mother of
Captain Robin Broxterman,
Colerain Township, Ohio
LODD 04/04/08
