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Title: Working Fire: The Making of an Accidental Fireman by Zac Unger ISBN: 1-59420-001-7 Publisher: The Penguin Press Pub. Date: 08 March, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (10 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: THIS BOOK IS SIMPLY GREAT
Comment: Zac Unger who of course is the author and primary subject of this book seems unlikely candidate for being a firefighter he is a ivy league graduate who has grown up in berkeley with parents who seem to be former hippies and going to as the book called progressive day schools were everybody was made to feel cuddly and special.The author had many different jobs working at at mine riverguide even watching peregrine falcons mating and even driving muffin delivery truck quite a contrast compared to his 24 other academy mates of class 398 who some were sons or brothers of firefighters or they themselves were fire fighters in other cities but in Oakland were they are training now.
The book follows along as they try to make through the 4 months at the academy and try to graduate.Upon graduation it follows the author around to the different fire stations as he learns his way finding that each fire station has its on little quirks.There are alot of humoreous part dealing with the banter and childish pranks that are desribed amongst the firefighters.
Not only does the author become a fire fighter but he also becomes a paramedic which is comical as he desribes how squimish he is around medical people espescially when a doctor tried to use a tongue depressor on him and he almost passed out.
This goes through alot of incidents they faced and was quite informative and overall an excellant book to read it is one of those books you can sit down and read in one sitting so give it a try you will not be disappointed
Rating: 5
Summary: Witty and insightful
Comment: Hard to put down! Zac Unger paints colorful images of life as a firefighter. He describes the gritty realities of daily life in the inner city with both sensitivity and wit. His accounts of firefighting are so engaging that you can almost smell the smoke in the air. Most importantly, he gives insight into why someone chooses to run into the buildings that the rest of us are fleeing. He reveals both the heroic and the human side of life as a firefighter. Informative and entertaining. I highly recommend this book.
Rating: 4
Summary: Great book, bad firefighting
Comment: Real good book. Zac is a great writer. As everyone notes he is a wonderful student of human nature. He tells a story well. His is a great tale of badly done fire fighting and self aggrandizment.
Zac's story is not written for emergency responders, it is written for vicarious thrill-seekers. He embarrasses the Oakland Fire Department (or they should be embarrassed). Zac describes a flagrantly hypocritical relationship between training and fire ground practice. Every scenario Zac describes, fire to medical, is a study of not just poor practice, but shockingly atrocious practice. My chief would be outraged!
I usually wonder if an author has sanitized his scenarios, so they will "look good" to another responder. With Working Fire, I wondered why Zac didn't. The answer is, Zac condones this stuff and thrives on it. He thinks it is what makes a fire fighter great; it separates the true, "big city" firefighter from the "small potatoes" firefighter. He is wrong. In fact, it separates the arrogant and backward from the professional.
I wish to correct impressions Zac gives. Among firefighters, the "H" word is embarrassing. Modern firefighters do not take pride in breathing in toxic fumes as proof of the sacrifices they make to the job. Everything about a car fire is toxic(consider what's burning). Paramedics put high priority on "holding C-spine" so accident victims are not inadvertently paralyzed by handling during extrication and transport. Zac describes lack of such care. Fire fighters do not enter burning buildings alone (freelancing). Fire fighters practice accountability; they don't get lost or separated from their team.
I am offended by the rank insubordination Zac describes and justifies. If Oakland Fire Department officers are so incompetent, something should be done about it; however, insubordination is not the solution. I fail to understand what Zac and his friend gained with (1) the act of insubordination and (2) their "freelance" fire fighting methods. (I would have been fired!) Neanderthal attitudes and arguments Zac expresses about safety gear, that most of us use to protect us from heat, are unsubstantiated. It is offensive that he writes about it after describing the death of an officer and the maiming of two others, where it is clear that lack of such gear contributed to the tragedy. Injury and death of firefighters are not glories, even if it puts them on the "Honor Role." On-the-job accidents are tragic errors, no matter what the job is.
I hope Zac continues writing. I hope he quits fire fighting. I hope Oakland gets its act together.
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Title: 3000 Degrees: The True Story of a Deadly Fire and the Men Who Fought It by Sean Flynn ISBN: 0446690953 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Confessions of a Tax Collector : One Man's Tour of Duty Inside the IRS by Richard Yancey ISBN: 0060555602 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 02 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Last Men Out: Life on the Edge at Rescue 2 Firehouse by Tom Downey ISBN: 0805071695 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company Pub. Date: 01 May, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Blue Blood by Edward Conlon ISBN: 1573222666 Publisher: Riverhead Books Pub. Date: 12 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: Little Red Book of Firehouse Pranks by Jeff Hibbard ISBN: 0966781007 Publisher: Jeff Hibbard Pub. Date: 01 April, 1997 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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