Editor's note: Roger Yow, president of the Charleston Firefighter's Association Local 61 and a former captain with 25 years of service in the department, was alerted to the fire about 40 minutes after the call first came in.

By Roger Yow
Charleston Firefighter's Association Local 61

Roger Yow.

June 18, 2007 was a day that we will never forget here in Charleston and is imprinted in firefighters' minds across the nation. I arrived at the scene after the flashover and collapse. I will never forget the faces of our firefighters as they tried to focus on their jobs at hand.

There were looks of shock and utter disbelief at what had occurred. At that time we knew we had lost some brothers but no one knew how many. As the hours passed, the sad truth hit very hard. Nine brothers had been lost.

As the weeks and months passed after that dreadful night, the city, finally, appointed the Routley Panel to investigate what had happened and they went to work. The shortcomings in fire department management quickly became obvious.

Firefighters seemed to readily embrace the panel's suggested recommendations for change, while management did not take to it very well at first. But that attitude didn't last long as the firefighters of the CFD wanted change to make sure this kind of tragedy never happens again.

With the much anticipated release of the NIOSH draft and the very important and informative Routley Phase 2 report, it seemed to confirm what most already knew — this tragedy could have been avoided. The release of these reports were a very important part of the healing process that continues here and allows us to move forward in rebuilding our fire department.

At this point we are a better and safer fire department than we were on June 18, 2007. But there is still much work to be done as we move forward. We have chosen to look toward the future and to only visit the past to remember our nine brothers as the healing continues.