Burn Centers and Disaster Response

“The horror of that moment” the King went on, “I shall never forget.” “You will, though” the Queen said “if you don't make a memorandum of it” Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass, 1871 This quote from the opening page of a textbook appropriately titled Inviting Disaster, 1 sets the stage for the second issue of the Journal of Burn Care and Research devoted to disaster management and response. This issue, published on the fifth anniversary of September 11, 2001, serves as one of many memoranda of that day, and reminds us that burn disasters can and will occur. As burn care providers, we share the collective responsibility of being ready to respond. Life has changed since September 11th. It takes longer to get on an airplane. Terrorists have attacked our Australian, Spanish, and British allies with bombings in Bali, Madrid, and London. To keep us safe, our servicemen and women are deployed away from their families and in harms way. Some burn centers have closed and others are providing more care with fewer resources.