Customer Reviews

Fire Fighters: Stories of Survival from the Front Lines of Firefighting (Adrenaline)

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You'll have trouble putting this one down. 21 strong selections look at firefighting from a variety of angles. I read a lot of 'fire books' but the editor found plenty I had not seen. 8 of the 21 stories are stand-alone articles, not excerpts - 2 about 9-11 that will just tear you up. The focus is split about 50/50 between city firefighting and forest firefighting, with a couple essays from folks who don't actually fight fires themselves, but must live with those who do. You'll read about a lot of brave men who never came home from their fires and you can't help but pause at the end of most of the selections. This book is especially relevant in the summer of 2002 with wildfires devouring Arizona and Colorado - what a way to better understand the human aspect of what you see on the news, and even learn something. Willis has chosen powerful, gut-wrenching, tear-jerking stuff from sources you haven't seen and you or your firefighter will stay up to read this one cover to cover.

I was disappointed in this book. I found the majority of material to be related to 9/11 or to wildland firefighting while the cover implies it covers all ranges of firefighting. The material included is good...it just spends very little time on structural firefighting and the men who do that job. What time it does dedicate to it is mostly in the form of re-hash of previous material; Report from Engine Co 82, Working etc. There are better books out there, unless you are interested in wildland firefighting. If you are, then this is one of the better books on the subject.