The Butler Eagle first published this article on Sept. 11, 2002.

They swapped T-shirts, stories and grief last month in the empty shadow once cast by the World Trade Center. Uncommon men with a common purpose. Strangers yet brothers. Firefighters.

It was a moment for one Butler County firefighter, still coping with a personal tragedy, to share condolences with firefighters from Lower Manhattan, New York, still reeling from the worst foreign attack on American soil.

It was a chance to remember the dead and honor the firefighter's calling.

The brotherhood of firefighters has never been stronger since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 last year. And the public's misunderstood perception of firefighters has been replaced by feelings of admiration and respect.

“I think a lot of people used to take us for granted,” said Mark Lauer, chief for the Unionville Volunteer Fire Department. “They took a lot of what we did for granted. That's changed since 9/11.”

Lauer talked about the change post-Sept. 11 with the men at Manhattan Engine Co. 14 during his recent visit to pay respects to the New York City firefighters. His colleagues 400 miles away see the same change.

“People stop by and say, 'Hi, we're thinking about you.' That's important for us to hear,” Lauer said. “Over the past year there's definitely been a change. People now see what we do.”

Lauer admits that 2001 was “a tough year” for him. Two of his men, firefighters Anthony Murdick and Scott and Wilson, drowned 17 months ago in Slippery Rock Creek while trying to recover the body of a drowned kayaker. Then came the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, where 343 firefighters died trying to rescue thousands of workers inside the Twin Towers.

“There's absolutely been a change in how people look at us since 9/11,” said Wayne Kovach, president of the Butler County Fire Chiefs Association, who recently retired after 28 years as a firefighter, including a four-year stint as chief with the Cranberry Township Volunteer Fire Company.

“Firefighters in general, but especially volunteer firefighters for years were considered nothing more than a bunch of beer-drinking clowns,” Kovach said.

“But now they're using firefighters in TV commercials. Firefighters in all kinds of advertising have been replacing athletes. Firefighters are now heroes. And I think it's long overdo.”

Chief Dale Moore of the Slippery Rock Volunteer Fire Company laments that it took a national tragedy to bolster the public's image of firefighters, but he likes the change.

“It's given me and the other guys a heightened sense of pride. It's made us proud of what we're doing,” he said. “There's an awareness now of the risks we take to do our job, and an understanding that at any time we may have to put our lives on the line.”

The national value of firefighters has never been more clearly defined, according to Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, the Washington, D.C.-based union representing more than 250,000 professional firefighters and emergency medical workers in the U.S. and Canada.

“In the aftermath of the attacks, the media adopted firefighters as the symbol of our national resolve,” Schaitberger said. “Americans have finally recognized that firefighters are their first line of homeland defense.”

But there's also been a psychological change since Sept. 11 inside Butler County fire stations. The bond among firefighters is tighter than ever, said Chief Dave Van Atta of the Middlesex Volunteer Fire Company.

“Before 9-11 when our pagers went off we didn't think much of it. But now when the pagers go off we're a bit more leery,” he said. “We go to calls with a bit more caution. The risks we face as firefighters were really brought home by what happened on 9/11.”

Van Atta said he has also sensed a greater camaraderie among his men.

“We've never been tighter,” he said.

Lauer has seen the same at his department.

“Among the men, there's more closeness than before,” he said, noting the bond grew especially taut after the deaths of Murdick and Wilson, and grew more after Sept. 11.

The renewed commitment among firefighters has also been evident in other ways. Lauer said that while pre-Sept. 11 meetings of the Butler County Fire Chiefs Association drew only 15 members or so, now it is not unusual to see between 50 and 60 members in attendance.

“People want to be more involved,” said Lauer, a trustee with the association.

However, despite the changes in how firefighters are viewed by outsiders, there has been no rise in membership. Much needed volunteers at departments countywide have not come forward.

And there's been little if any increase in donations during the departments' fund drives that followed Sept. 11.

Meanwhile, the image of the empty crater where the World Trade Center stood atop the New York skyline will remain forever in Lauer's mind.

“I was awestruck. The crater takes up a whole city block,” he said. “It's hard to imagine all the lives lost there; so many firefighters.

“Nowadays the word 'hero' is thrown about to describe all firefighters. I don't consider myself as that. The heroes are the ones that made the ultimate sacrifice that day.”