"Attention, Engines 10, 11, 3; Ladders 5 and 1; Special Hazards; and Division 1: a still box."

I kept my ears tuned to the radio while I chopped some onions, waiting to hear from the 10s. It didn't take long.

"Engine 10 to fire alarm, heavy smoke condition."

I chopped a little faster. At the time, Engine 2 and Ladder 7 were the staging companies in Providence. I was on Engine 2 and knew that if there was a building fire we would be called. We caught a lot of fire in the early 1990s that way; as soon as we heard a still box come over the loudspeaker, the crews would head for the trucks. If it sounded good, we would be ready to roll when the first-in company called "CODE RED!"

"Roger, Engine 10; we have a report of smoke coming from the factory on Oxford Street."

"Roger that; Engine 10 on scene, Code Red, bang a second…   Continue reading here

http://www.fireengineering.com/articles/fire_life/articles/2012/december/general-alarm.html

* A few firefighters old enough to remember this one reminded me that it was actually a 5 alarm fire on Gordon Street, not Oxford, but Oxford intersected nearby.

On Tuesday I sat with hundreds of first responders, FBI, ATF, NSA, State Police, Fire Departments, Bomb Squads, School Principals and administrators and learned all about how to respond to school shootings. It was a fantastic class, taught by two fantastic people, one of whom is a retired Connecticut State Trooper.

After eight hours of lessons, including bomb detection, personality profiles, lessons learned from the past, terrorist bombings. homegrown terrorism and the construction of explosives using items available at Wal-Mart the general consensus was that it is the "Lone Wolf" that is the most difficult to stop.

In a room full of stern faced men and women, mostly sitting in packs with their teams, with their letters emblazoned on their uniforms I felt invincible. A hundred miles away a lone wolf bought ammunition. A hundred miles away teachers taught, students lived and laughed and learned how to succeed in the world that awaited them outside the safety of their classroom. 

And the quiet town of Newtown, Connecticut enjoyed the last moments of peace and tranquility it will know for generations.

Tomorrow will come, and we will train some more, and learn some more, and try to figure out how to respond, because sometimes all of the preparation and precaution means nothing, and we are left with the task of putting the pieces back together, and providing the people we protect with the illusion of safety.