A worker at the crash site takes a break as he waits his turn to help recovery efforts at the Pentagon on Sept. 14, 2001. The Pentagon was damaged when the hijacked American Airlines flight slammed into the building on Sept. 11th. The terrorist attack caused extensive damage to the west face of the building and followed similar attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City.

"One of the differences here, as we talk about terrorist events, is, this is not your average fire. There's no [fire] getting knocked down in 15 to 20 minutes, go take rehab . . . and go home. These are long-term events, and first-alarm units, at least with us, were on the scene for hours, taking the gear off, rehabbing somewhere in the general area where they were working, finding another [air] bottle somewhere and refilling it. . . . In terrorist-type events, they're going to be campaign, long-term incidents where people are going to be using this gear and putting it back on wet, half-used bottles--going through a lot of things that we would not consider the norm."

--Firefighter-special-operations panel member