Two firefighters died yesterday, while attempting to secure their campsite just outside of Los Angeles. 

Capt. Tedmund Hall, 47, and firefighter Specialist Arnaldo Quinones, 35, of Palmdale were killed in the crash, said Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Mark Savage.

Arnaldo Quinones' wife, Loressa, is pregnant with their first child.

How awful.  America lost two great men yesterday, August 31st.  True American Heroes.

I really dislike the way the word "hero" is so casually thrown around.  People overuse the word so much, it loses it's true value. 

One time, when I was about ten years old, I was swimming in a lake that had a sudden drop-off.  I was a pretty strong swimmer and I was treading water past the drop-off point and just sort of looking around, enjoying the sun.

At some point I hear a cry and to make a long story short:  A kid had mistakenly walked past the drop-off and was proceeding to drown.

He was only a few feet from being able to stand up.  So I swam over-- I think I might have grabbed him by the hair-- and I pulled him three feet to safety.  Three feet.

Anyway, he told his parents that I "saved" him and a reporter ended up calling and, of course, they called me a bloody hero.  (My face is so beet-red right now.  I can't even tell this story without getting embarassed as all get out.)

There was absolutely NOTHING heroic about what I did.  In fact, all I did was act like a human being and behaved in a manner that is no less than EXPECTED of every single one of us.  That makes a hero?  If I didn't go after the kid, I would have practically been culpable in his death.  Going after him was the bare minimum thing that any human being would do in that situation.  Anybody.  Bare minimum.

But Firefighters?  Now those guys are true heros.  They don't wait until they just happen to be around if a kid is drowning.  They go into the job knowing that they are going to be saving lives...and occasionally losing some.

They willingly take the job of first responders.  They walk into the burning buildings while the rest of us flee in terror.

Have you ever thought about the fact that these guys only make $45,000 per year (on average) and they deal with burned-up children, motorcycle accidents, and every other violent horror that happens in our society?  We hear about the child with third degree burns all over her body, but do we ever think about the guy who pulled her out of the house?  How he may be scarred for life over what he saw?

Let us give thanks for men like Tedmund Hall and Arnaldo Quinones.  We are all the better for having men like these among us.