“I’m very proud to serve this year as honorary co-chair of the Congressional Fire Caucus.  It’s a great honor to go to work and represent the men and women who work in firehouses all over our great country.

Who but a firefighter can you call when your kitten gets stuck in a tree?

Seriously, there has never been a time in our nation’s history when we have asked our fire and emergency services personnel to do so much. 

In Southern Missouri, our firefighters understand this concept clearly.  Firefighters, police officers and EMTs often share their duties.  They grow used to the flexibility required of them.

In December, two of our firefighters in Cape Girardeau who are also members of the U.S. Navy Reserve Seabees left for Iraq.  It is one’s third deployment to the Middle East, and it is another’s first, though he has been enlisted in the military for 27 years. 

Atop the New Madrid Fault that runs deep beneath the Mississippi River, first responders in our district have to be prepared for an event that hasn’t taken place since 1812 – an 8.0 magnitude earthquake.  On a recent trip out with our firefighters, I saw them storm a dilapidated house in a simulated extraction exercise – the whole house had been rigged to act like it had just been through the worst quake we are likely to experience.  If the worst happens and someone isn’t prepared, it won’t be because of those guys. 

We ask a lot of our firefighters to respond to emergencies that happen every day, but they are going far above and beyond to be ready for something that happens once every 200 years.

Finally, there is the story of Charlie Jones, the Emergency Manager and Fire Chief in
Caruthersville, Missouri.  It was Charlie’s job to make sure Caruthersville was ready for a natural disaster – and one of the biggest threats in that department in Southern Missouri is a tornado.  One year ago on April 2nd that city was devastated by an F-3 tornado – a direct hit.  More than 100 homes were completely destroyed.  About 1,500 of the 6,700 residents were displaced.  60% of the city suffered severe damage.  And though one life was lost in that terrible storm, not one person in the city died that night.  We asked a lot of Charlie to get Caruthersville ready for a tornado, and boy am I glad he went the extra mile.

This is what it means to be on the front lines.  Our firefighters and emergency medical
technicians go above and beyond every day.  Because they do, people are safe.  People survive.  People live through the worst days of their lives.

Yet, with the weight of these duties on their shoulders, our first responders go into the field every day, both for training missions and for the real thing.  They never stop asking what they can do to make our communities safer for all of us.  Ask any firefighter, and he or she will tell you it is true that they would much rather prevent a fire than fight one.

In Congress, we’re fighting for training and grant programs like SAFER, which was created after September 11th, 2001 to better staff fire departments, and FIRE, a new equipment program.  In addition, extra funding for grants to first responders comes through the Department of Homeland Security.

These programs reflect the fact that our firefighters fight fires, and they do so much more.  Which is helpful, even when it’s just your kitten stuck up in a tree.”