You'll see the eight-pointed cross on fire trucks, patches, and badges all over the country, including our own — it's one of the oldest symbols in the fire service, and its history goes back nearly a thousand years.
It traces back to the Knights Hospitaller, a military order known for defending the sick and wounded during the Crusades. Fighting to hold Jerusalem, they came up against an enemy weapon that was new to them: fire. Attackers hurled glass bombs filled with naphtha into the knights' ranks, then followed with flaming torches to set the naphtha alight.
Many knights were burned alive. Others tore off their own armor to beat back the flames and pull their wounded brothers to safety, often at the cost of their own lives. In recognition of that courage, the order adopted a distinctive cross as a badge of honor — and because the knights would go on to make their home for centuries on the island of Malta, it became known as the Maltese Cross.
That's the tradition today's firefighters carry forward. The cross is a reminder that this job has always meant being willing to walk into danger to pull someone else out of it — the same commitment our volunteers make every time the pager goes off.
