Rest in Peace, Mr. Gordon, and thank you for all you did...
The amount of respect given to firefighters is often dependent on the places in which they serve. In my hometown of San Francisco, firefighters have long been respected and honored. The City is very dense with a lot of old, wooden buildings, some dating back to the very early 1900s. On some blocks, if one building catches fire, it is not unusual for several other buildings adjacent to burn; in some cases, entire blocks have gone up in flames. Added to the mix is the steep, hilly terrain and sometimes iffy water pressure. The City has had so many major fires, a few of which have resulted in the near total destruction of the City, that the official City Seal is a picture of a Phoenix rising from the flames. One of the City's major landmarks is Coit Tower, itself a depiction of a fire hose nozzle:
The Tower was constructed from funds left by Lilly Hitchcock Coit, an heiress who, as a child and into her adult life, was fascinated by the heroic work of the City's firefighters...
Other people I have known from older cities with dense populations and older, wooden buildings such as Boston, Philadelphia, and parts of New York have told me of similar traditions of respect and gratitude towards firefighters. No matter what city, those who run toward the fire deserve all the respect they get from those of us they protect...
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