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The following press release was made
by Fire Engineering regarding the passing
of Tom Brennan, former Fire Engineering
Editor and Technical Editor.
*****It is with great sadness that
Fire Engineering announces the loss
of its former editor and technical editor
Tom Brennan at the age of 65*****
Tom Brennan was born in 1940 in Brooklyn,
New York. He was a third-generation
Fire Department of New York (FDNY) firefighter--his
father and grandfather were FDNY firefighters.
His grandfather was killed in the line
of duty in a gas explosion in 1920.
His father, who retired after 35 years
of service in FDNY, was up to that time
the most decorated firefighter in the
department.
Brennan answered the call to promote
fire service education nationally in
1983, when he accepted the position
of editor of Fire Engineering. He used
his intelligence; personality; ability
to "turn a phrase"; and authentic,
intense love for the fire service to
sustain Fire Engineering's prominence
in the industry.
"Tommy found Fire Engineering
when it was struggling, and he breathed
life into it and gave it all he could,"
noted Fire Engineering Editor in Chief
and close personal friend Bobby Halton.
"He was like Henry Ford ... Tommy
didn't care if your idea was perfect.
He cared because you had an idea, and
solutions are always good somewhere.
He would say, 'Hell, try something;
stand up and try something. The worst
failures are the comfortable ones. Keep
doing what you're good at. That will
get you far. Keep building one car at
a time.' "
In his "Editor's Notebook"
message in the December 1983 issue of
Fire Engineering, Brennan cited the
reasons he "decided that trying
to uphold the 107-year tradition, meaning,
and purpose of Fire Engineering's goals
would be a challenge I would take on:
To help firefighters cope with the
tremendous decisions confronting them
as they battle our national disease-fire;
to bring the experiences, decisions,
results, and lessons of our firefighters
and officers throughout the country
to the fore; to lay these lessons before
our interested and aware firefighters
so that they may benefit from this shared
knowledge .."
And he succeeded in his mission. "Tom
Brennan is 'Mister tell it like it is'
and a 'father figure' to a younger generation
of firefighters," wrote participants
in a survey associated with Fire Engineering's
125th anniversary. They were asked to
nominate individuals who helped to make
the fire service an enduring and relevant
institution. "He has made truck
company operations and forcible entry
sought-after arts to be practiced and
mastered. He has imparted his vast knowledge
of urban firefighting for 40 years-just
street stuff every firefighters needs
to know," the respondents said.
His writings, national training presentations,
involvement in developing the National
Fire Academy curriculum, and "Random
Thoughts" series in Fire Engineering
were among the mechanisms he employed
to improve fire service training and
promote the health, safety, and welfare
of the fire service brotherhood and
sisterhood.
Still the most widely read column in
the fire service, "Random Thoughts"
has elicited much enthusiasm and response
from readers. Typical of the numerous
comments received through the years
are the following received in a letter
to the editor from a fire department
deputy chief: "When I read Fire
Engineering, I always start at the back
page with "Random Thoughts."
Tom Brennan writes the best articles
in the fire service. Every article is
to the point and written with common
sense. I can honestly say I learn something
new every time I read his articles.
I am always willing to learn; even after
23 years, I fear that I don't know enough.
His articles really stir my interest
and provide me with a great source of
information .."
"If there ever was a fireman,
it was Tom Brennan!" declared Glenn
Corbett, Fire Engineering technical
editor, professor of fire science at
John Jay College in New York City, and
an assistant chief with the Waldwick
(NJ) Fire Department. "Tom was
one of a kind, a man with more firefighting
knowledge than anyone I ever met. I
don't think we'll ever meet anyone else
with his wit and insight."
"Tommy Brennan taught me 'We can,'
said Bobby Halton. "Tommy believed
that with good training, an American
fire department was the most dynamic
force in the universe. Tommy Brennan
knew no matter who you are or no matter
where you worked, you had value."
"When I think of Tom, I think
of a beat-up (Tom had more joints replaced
than any man I knew) towering man,"
said John "Skip" Coleman,
deputy chief of fire prevention, Toledo
(OH) Department of Fire and Rescue,
and Fire Engineering technical editor,
"kind of like John Wayne in 'Rooster
Cogburn.' Beat-up knees and hips because
of all of the attics and hallways he
crawled through on his hands and knees.
Tom told us time and time again, 'If
you can't see because of the smoke -
you crawl.' If it was OK for Tom to
crawl, then it was OK for me to crawl.
Beat-up shoulders because of all the
swings of an ax on roofs and doors he
popped with the irons. Again, Tom taught
us the easiest ways to punch holes and
pop doors at the expense of his own
shoulders. A towering man because he
was not only a big man in stature, but
also because of his vast knowledge and
experience."
"Tom fought fires when fires were
fires," said Chief Coleman. "Tom
fought fires when the city was burning.
All in all, Tom fought a lot of fires.
I learned by his trial and error. I
gained from his experiences. I run fires
better and safer because of his wisdom."
"I first met Tom more than 20
years ago when I first submitted an
article to Fire Engineering at its offices
on Third Avenue in New York City,"
recalled Corbett. "Tom had just
taken over as editor and was retooling
it into the training journal, so that
every firefighter could take away something
new from each issue to use on the fireground.
It was Tom's obsession with "back
to the basics" that made Fire Engineering
the powerful force that it is. Tom,
an FDNY captain on one of the busiest
trucks in the New York City during the
'war years,' realized that the firefighters
of the 1980s and 1990s (and today) needed
the 'bread and butter' more than anything
else."
After Brennan retired from Fire Engineering
in 1990, he was appointed chief of department
of the Waterbury (CT) Fire Department
in November 1991. His leadership qualities,
political skills, and savvy fire department
marketing helped him to establish cooperation
and a knowledge base that built the
foundation for future departmental and
fire service progress.
"Tom was this 'gentle giant' who
loves our profession and all 'professionals'
who work in it," recalled Chief
Coleman. "From the moment I met
him, I could feel a brotherhood from
him to me. He made me feel comfortable
and never put on an air of superiority
toward any firefighter he believed loved
the profession as much as he did. And
Tom had a great sense of humor. No one
could tell 'fire stories' like he could.
He painted a picture with words so vivid
that you could taste the smoke. And
no one could put humor into a fire or
a fire station story like Tom .."
"Even though Tom went on to be
editor at Fire Engineering, and later
chief in Waterbury, Connecticut, he
never lost touch with the finest points
in the art of firefighting," pointed
our Corbett. "How many chief officers
do you know that could force a door
half a dozen different ways? How many
magazine editors can tell you where
to expect victims in a six-story walk-up
with a fire in the second-floor rear?"
Among Brennan's most commonly voiced
observations shared at national meetings
and in his writings were the following:
" Leadership is getting things
done through the efforts of others through
strength of will or character.
" We're losing firefighters because
we don't know where they are because
nobody is around to check on them because
there aren't enough people .. We're
losing our people because they're not
being marketed correctly. Administratively,
we're giving our OK to this by very
scared leaders whose jobs are in the
pockets of people hired to save the
city 5 percent-city manager types ..
" [It] comes down to tactics..
I don't want to do anything [task] first.
I want to do seven things all at once.
Now, you have a safe building and you
can operate within that structure with
an acceptable level of risk .. Today,
we have these explosive bombs because
there's nobody showing up to make [the
buildings] behave.
" To do your job, you have to
know the tactics and their interrelationships--how
one works with the other. You must be
able to tell people if one is missing
what it's going to cost inside the burning
structure .. You must be able to [explain
it] in three languages--around the table
in the station, to the press when you
have a chance, and to the financial
people-to make them understand your
job in their language.
" The company officer is a dying
breed in the fire service. The company
officer has been relegated to being
a butt man on a portable ladder and
the number 2 person behind a 1 ¾
inch automatic nozzle.Lack of staffing
has caused the company officer to become
a tactician. The company officer who
puts his/her hand into the tactic is
absolutely useless. There is no company
officer. The company officer is the
last person who, by saying yes or no,
has the last word about whether that
firefighter is going to be injured or
killed ..
" To new recruits, he issued the
following "Word of caution: You
will arrive at many plateaus in your
career from here on. And this moment
is most assuredly one of them. You have
successfully completed training, and
you think it's over! Nothing could be
further from the truth. No firefighter
is worth anything to himself, his department,
or his community the moment he believes
that he knows enough or knows it all.
Training is and must be an ongoing concept-from
day one until day last. That idea should
be accepted by the probationary firefighter
and nodded to in agreement by the chief
.. "You are now a member of the
world's greatest profession. You will
ascend to personal highs that only another
firefighter will understand. You will
also be brought to tears that only you
will understand. Our job is truly unique
in its humor as well as in its sorrow.
I only pray that you will always be
able to function between those two extreme
feelings so that one never overshadows
the other.
"It's now up to you to make people
better off because you came this way,
because you responded, because you showed
up. You are your brothers' keeper-keep
them safe ..."
"In our last conversation, I told
Tommy how happy I was after going to
Washington for the Congressional Fire
Services Institute dinner in early April,"
noted Halton. "I told him I thought
the American firefighter is no longer
slugging it out alone. We agreed that
you can sense that leadership of the
American fire service has begun a new
era of cooperation, of shared vision,
and of ego subjugation. I was excited
because the firefighter joining today
in Philadelphia, San Diego, Seattle,
and Phoenix will be better represented,
better trained, and better led than
any other generation of firefighters
.. Tommy said the good old days aren't
over--well maybe for the has-been's
and the blind--but he said if you're
paying attention, you 'ain't seen nothing
yet. The best of times are still to
come.'"
Brennan has had an immense influence
on the firefighting family. He forged
many personal relationships across the
nation. As Corbett noted, "I know
many of you reading/hearing this will
remember Tom as your friend. That was
the great thing about Tom: You met him,
and you had a friend for life."
Brennan, for all his seriousness and
intensity when it came to safe "commonsense"
and "simple" effective firefighting
had a keen sense of humor and the gift
of being the "life of the party."
"Tom's sense of humor endeared
him to many in this business,"
explained Corbett. "One real-life
incident he shared with me many years
ago has always stuck with me. Tom was
trapped on a Brooklyn tenement fire
escape; fire was blowing out of the
windows in his only escape path. Another
firefighter (and mutual friend) emerged
on the fire escape of the building next
door. On seeing Tom and his predicament,
the firefighter exclaimed, 'Tom, if
you take your hook and hang it off the
fire escape, you can swing yourself
over to me, and I'll catch you!' Tom
yelled back, '$%#? *^@, I'll take my
chances!' That was Tom in a nutshell."
Brennan had a bachelor's degree in
fire science from John Jay College of
Criminal Justice, where he graduated
summa cum laude. He was awarded the
College's Distinguished Alumni Award
some 20 years later. In 1998, Tom Brennan
was the recipient of the Fire Engineering
Lifetime Achievement Award. He was co-editor
of The Fire Chief's Handbook, Fifth
Edition (Fire Engineering Books, 1995),
was featured in the video Brennan and
Bruno Unplugged (Fire Engineering/FDIC,
1999), and was a regular contributor
to Firenuggets.com.
Brennan married his wife Janet in 1964;
they have four children: Thomas, Teresa,
Eileen, and Brian.
Tom had indelibly imprinted his unique
impressions on "his beloved fire
service":
" As the consummate, passionate
"Tommy Truck."
" As a 20-year veteran of the
Fire Department of New York (FDNY),
where he responded to some 30,000 fire
calls and from which he retired as captain.
" As one of the most important
fire service educators of his generation.
" As a writer and the editor of
Fire Engineering, and as a technical
editor.
" As the chief of the Waterbury
(CT) Fire Department.
As someone who wanted to make a meaningful
difference to what he termed "my
thinking fire service."
The Staff at TFW adds to the chorus
of "Rest in Peace, Brother's"
that are echoing arounf the nation's
fire stations I light of Chief Brennan's
passing.
Donation information is pending and
will be posted on texas Fire world once
we have it. Condolences may be forwarded
To:
Mrs. Janet Brennan and Family
1936 SE 35th Street
Cape Coral, FL 33904
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