NY Daily News

The destruction of the World Trade Center cloaked the city in a cloud of ash and enveloped the FDNY in a shroud of grief, killing 343 department members and sending more than 2,000 firefighters into retirement over the next two years.

But five years later, the FDNY has rebuilt itself with aggressive recruiting, bolstered training and new technologies.

And although some observers question the department's ability to handle another terror strike, the Bravest vow to be ready.

"This was a department in mourning for a long time after the attacks," said FDNY Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta. "And everyone still feels that loss, but we are prepared for our next challenge."

On Sept. 10, 2001, the FDNY's 8,660 firefighters had an average of 10.5 years on the job.

Due to the deaths of 9/11 and the rash of retirements that followed - 1,221 quit in 2002 alone, more than double the yearly average - the 9,074 firefighters working today average just 8.25 years on the job.

The average experience of fire officers shows a similar dip.

"The face of the FDNY is getting younger," said Prof. Glenn Corbett of John Jay College's fire science program. "The loss of experience the Fire Department suffered after Sept. 11 was just staggering.

"That's going to be a challenge for many years to come," Corbett added.

The Fire Department, however, believes it is making up for experience with training.

The Fire Academy has gotten more rigorous, and the fire simulators more demanding.

Moreover, the department learned a hard lesson when the vast majority of its elite units, including its lone haz-mat squad and five rescue companies, were wiped out on 9/11. It has compensated by training more Bravest to handle more tasks.

"We are now stressing decentralization among our units," said Chief of Department Salvatore Cassano. "We also are aware, in the age of terrorism, that we must be equipped to handle two large-scale incidents in different places on the same day."

Not everyone believes that the new training procedures and operational strategies will be enough to prevent further heavy losses from a terror attack.

"It's the experience at the command levels that the department will miss," said former Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen, who headed the FDNY on 9/11.

To help eliminate the confusion that reigned at the World Trade Center on 9/11, the FDNY created several incident management teams - squads trained to handle large-scale events. The department is also about to christen an operations center in its downtown Brooklyn headquarters.

"We've replaced manpower and trained people at accelerated rates," said Peter Gorman, head of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, who believes the FDNY needs a bigger share of the city's budget. "We've done what we can."

But the controversy over the malfunctioning radios that hindered rescue efforts on 9/11 remains, even as the FDNY has embraced new technologies with mixed results.

"That the FDNY still cannot communicate in every high-rise and every subway in the City of New York is a disgrace to the guys who died on 9/11," said Corbett.

Scoppetta, however, defended the department's new ultrahigh frequency radios, saying they are more effective in skyscrapers and underground, will be boosted by hand-held amplifiers and will function more smoothly with the NYPD's radio system.

"No system will be 100% effective on the 80th floor or in the subway," said Scoppetta. "But we have made remarkable strides."

And while the losses of 9/11 continue to cast a shadow, there is still no shortage of people looking to call themselves New York's Bravest.

"After 9/11, people asked if anyone would ever be a firefighter again, and that's not the case," said Steve Cassidy, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association. "This department is still strong."