One of the cruel ironies of life is that a man who’s dedicated over forty years of his life to protecting others from the ravages of fire should have to endure the loss of a loved one to its wicked clutches.  Such a man is one of my former bosses, but more importantly a good friend, David Palumbo. 

David lost his sister in a house fire this week, the day after Memorial Day.  Firefighters from Powhatan County, Virginia—Powhatan is the next county over from Chesterfield County where Dave and I both served—at around 1:00 p.m. to find her home well involved in fire.  The house sat about 600 feet off the main road and was difficult to see from the road; the fire got quite a head start before anyone noticed it and called the fire department.  David’s sister was a woman in her 60’s and firefighters did not find her until after they’d knocked down the initial body of fire: until then the heat was too intense and conditions were unsafe for those firefighters to enter the home.

I only received this news late yesterday and I’ve not yet spoken with David; another former colleague, Dave Creasy, let me know about his loss by e-mail.  Therefore, I don’t have any details about this terrible event, one that’s repeated far too often in our country.  Before year’s end it will happen close to 4000 times to families all across America.  And that only counts the funerals; there will be hundreds of thousands more that are injured, many terribly burned, by this enemy that takes no holiday.

You and I need to always remain vigilant and make fire safety part of our daily lives so that it becomes how we live, not something that we have to think about doing.  That’s why I started writing this blog and why I’ll keep writing it.  So that hopefully you and your family never have to endure the pain that Dave Palumbo and his family are living with today.

Because fire plays no favorites.