Customer Reviews

Historic Fires of New York City (Images of America)

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As a retired member of the F.D.N.Y., I was VERY MUCH interested in seeing the photos (...and, their captions...) offered by the book, HISTORIC FIRES OF NEW YORK CITY -- and, I was certainly not disappointed! It was chock-full of pictures from fires I personally remembered as well as many "from before my time." (As is the case with most of the books I have seen in the "Images of America" series, I would heartily recommend this volume. It will be a great addition to the collection of anyone interested in the Fire Service or New York City history [in general] and/or the F.D.N.Y. [in particular].)

...a little slim.

I'm not a big fan of the Images of America series, although I've admittedly only read about a half dozen of them. However, Professors Corbett and Cannon's "Historic Fires of New York City" stands out as one of the better ones. The team of Corbett and Cannon proves to be a good team - both have extensive college teaching experience: Corbett in engineering and fire codes, Cannon in history, as well as many years of fire ground experience in the fire fighting profession.

Moving chronologically from the Dutch "Prowlers" who patrolled the streets of tiny New Amsterdam to the cataclysm of 9/11/01, Professors Corbett and Cannon identify, not only the major fires which ravaged Manhattan so often, but also the upgrades in fire-fighting equipment over the centuries. Many people assume that the reason so few buildings from colonial New York exist is that the city was so consummed with tearing down old buildings to make way for skyscrapers and, nowadays, condos. This is only part of the truth. The other part is that New York suffered so many disastrous fires over its long history that nothing really could survive. In particular, in 1776, shortly after the British took possession of Manhattan, a suspicious fire nearly burned down the entire downtown area. Sixty years later, a calamatous fire burned everything in what is now the financial district. Professors Cannon and Corbett bring all this to light in this slim book, and the illustrations are generous and effective.

However, you might have noticed I've used the word "slim" a few times. That's the only drawback that I could find with this book. The text isn't all that comprehensive; I found myself wanting to know more about the effects these fires had on the city's history and its future. However, this is not what the book set out to do, I believe. "Historic Fires of New York City" is not intended to be a scholarly text; it was geared to be informative in a simple way. And, overall, Professors Cannon and Corbett succeeded in what they set out to do.