Working Fire-The Making Of An Accidental Fireman

[x635 4,066]

Just finished this book recently. I found it enjoyable and interesting. It was interesting to see how the author came from a background completly opposite of the type of person you would expect to become a firefighter, and how he transforms into a firefighter. This book follows him from the civil service test, through rookie school, his first year, and beyond as a firefigher in the city of Oakland, California.The review below does a good job of summing it up.

Working Fire: The Making of an Accidental Fireman 

by Zac Unger 

From Publishers Weekly 

Expanding on a Slate diary he wrote in 2001, Unger delivers a crisply written, somewhat gripping narrative of a rookie's life in the Oakland Fire Department. If the firefighter's memoir has lately become a new genre, this is a solid introduction from a complete outsider who ably describes the journey to grizzled insider. When Unger, an Ivy League grad and eager outdoorsman, answered a job ad he saw at an Oakland bus stop, he had little inkling that he'd found his vocation. Firefighting was a job he knew little about, and applying seemed a lark (he writes that he couldn't imagine being the first person in his family not to get a Master's degree). But he was accepted into the training program, and it wasn't until he found himself among dozens of other recruits outside "the tower" (the department's training facility) that he realized he might be on his way to becoming a fireman. What follows is a journey through both the minutiae and adventure of a rookie firefighter's life, from the complex ritual of dinner at the firehouse and the letdown of false alarms to the danger and heat of a real fire. A readable account of Unger's first years on the job, the book is occasionally repetitive and meandering. Still, Unger's self-deprecation is endearing, as when he writes, "Whoever said that a man in uniform always looks good hasn't spent much time looking at me." 

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 

Hampton Sides, author of Ghost Soldiers 

Zac Unger knows fire, but far more interestingly, he knows human nature. 

Book Description from Amazon.com... 

A remarkable memoir, by turns funny and deeply moving, of one man's coming into his calling and his transformation from ambivalent Ivy League grad to skilled and dedicated firefighter. 

Zac Unger didn't feel like much of a firefighter at first. Most of his fellow recruits seemed to have planned for the job all their lives; he was an Ivy League grad responding to a help-wanted ad at an Oakland bus stop. He couldn't keep his boots shined, and he looked horrible in his uniform. Working Fire is the story of how, from this unlikely beginning, Zac Unger came to feel at home among this close-knit tribe, came to master his work's demands, and came to know what it is to see the city of Oakland through a firefighter's eyes. 

From the materials of his day's work-the harrowing calls and the hilarious, the moments of triumph and of grief-Zac Unger has forged a timeless story of finding one's path. He never takes himself too seriously, but he comes to take his job very seriously. Because he tells his story with such extraordinary empathy and wit, his fierce passion for his work, his comrades, and the city he protects becomes our own. 

[HFD23 37]

ya i have gotten through about 1/2 this book, its really interesting and i would recomend it to any one interested in the fire service, it describes life as a probie and shows the role of a man who didn't really have his heart set on being a firemen, but grew to do his job and constanly want to learn more.

[Guest pentax02839]

could you tell me were this book can be bought?sounds like a great book

[x635 4,066]

The book is available at Barnes and Noble, Borders, and www.amazon.com

[Guest pentax02839]

thank you for the information

[chris498 31]

I too am about 1/2 way through the book, a really great read. If you liked that book pick-up "Population 431" It was writen by a volunteer firefighter in rural Wisc. it too really puts it in perspective, I found myself relating to an aweful lot in that book..... the author has a good sense of humor, and it was a relatively quick read......oh and Seth, the guys talks quite a lot about his time as a medic....right up your alley....lol

[x635 4,066]

If you liked that book pick-up "Population 431" It was writen by a volunteer firefighter in rural Wisc. it too really puts it in perspective, I found myself relating to an aweful lot in that book..... the author has a good sense of humor, and it was a relatively quick read......oh and Seth, the guys talks quite a lot about his time as a medic....right up your alley....lol

Sounds cool, I'll have to add it to my ever increasing que of books-to-be-read,thanks