Steve Delsohn, the New York Times best-selling co-author of Out of Bounds with football star Jim Brown, called Firehouse Magazine and wanted to talk with firefighters about their experiences. After being supplied with a myriad of names from Firehouse and through fire departments, Delsohn set out to capture the entire human drama of the men and women who make up the fire service. The Fire Inside is filled with interviews and candid accounts from 108 firefighters, including paid and volunteer, urban and suburban, structural and wildland.
As an outsider, Delsohn was able to talk with a wide variety of fire service personnel. He keeps the firefighters nameless, letting them give their gut feelings and unvarnished in-sights. In the first chapter, "Getting Started," learning the job, teamwork, taking the ribbing and family pressures are related as these firefighters talk with great energy, with their own unique styles: "Everybody else will be running out of the fire, and you'll be running in. Why do you want a job like that?" "I'm running in for a good reason. I'm gonna save someone's life doing this job."
On why they do this job: "It's not like an everyday job, where you're waiting for the next phone call to take care of some paperwork problem. We're waiting for that gong to go off so we can enter somebody's worst nightmare. Then we try and give it a happy ending." On pride: "Whatever engine company arrives first, the fire is theirs to put out. The worst possible blow to anyone's pride is to have another company put out your fire. You never want other guys coming out of a fire, saying, 'Here you go, man. Here's your line.' Everyone wants to be the guy on the nozzle."
In The Fire Inside, a wealth of dealing with all aspects of the fire service is uncovered. In their unabashed style firefighters tell it like it is. Even though you may be one of them yourself, you'll want to hear what others have to say, and say it well.
