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Zusatztext "An inside view of firefighting that vividly re-creates the excitement and fear intrinsic to it." — The Washington Post "Filled with revelatory nuggets... that refreshingly humanize these courageous warriors." — Entertainment Weekly Informationen zum Autor Zac Unger is a firefighter and paramedic in Oakland, California. He has written about his life and work for the online magazine Slate . He is a graduate of Deep Springs College, Brown University, and UC Berkeley. On the web: http://www.zacunger.com Klappentext Zac Unger didn't feel like much of a fireman 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 an ad at a bus stop. He couldn't keep his boots shined, and he looked terrible 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 world through a firefighter's eyes. From the raw material of his days' work-alarm calls both harrowing and hilarious, moments of triumph and grief-Unger has forged a timeless story of finding one's path, and a rousing adventure about the bravery and sacrifice of everyday heroes. On the web: http://www.zacunger.com Leseprobe In my first months it was all pole. I couldn’t imagine taking the stairs like most of the old-timers. For me the pole stood for everything I admired about the fire department—speed, daring, an ageless tradition offered to only a select few. After dark I would lie in my bunk, fully dressed and vibrating with energy, waiting wide eyed for a call to come in. During my first months at the firehouse, I refused to let myself sleep, fearful that I’d somehow miss the cascading bells and harsh fluorescent lights that erupt when an alarm comes in. When the bells went off, I’d go flying out of my bunk and hit the pole running, spin down to the ground floor, spring into the rig, and wait. Within thirty seconds—it seemed like an eternity—the others would arrive at the rig, snapping their suspenders into place, kicking sleepy kinks out of their knees. The officer would key the mike to tell dispatch that we were leaving, then flick a match to his cigarette and settle into his seat. We’d race through darkened streets, the officer’s tobacco smoke curling back to where I sat fumbling with my heavy coat and gloves. Usually we’d leave the sirens turned off, and I’d watch our progress in the blinking lights playing on the shuttered shop windows and the huddled bodies of men sleeping in doorways. There was no good reason to wake them up. “Confirming stills. Confirming stills.” The voice of a female dispatcher crackles over the radio, telling us that it’s likely to be a real fire this time, not just one of our many false alarms. If more than one person calls it in, the flames are apt to be big and showy. They call it a “still” because when the information comes over the firehouse loudspeaker, conversations die in midair, the clink of coffee cups goes silent, and every fireman holds his breath, hoping that the address is in his district and he’ll get to fight a fire. That’s the only time a fireman is ever still. A “confirming still” means that the fire is big enough to have attracted attention from several people, all of whom called in to 911 simultaneously. With the confirmation, the officer stubs out the cigarette on the side of his boot and rolls down the window, sniffing for smoke on the quiet summer air. He flips on the siren now, and I hear it echoed by other distant fire engines triangulating their way toward us. “I’m not smelling it yet. You smell anything?” he asks. “Nope,” says Jack Alvarez, the firefighter sitting beside me. “Probably ain’t shit.” He’d been sleeping, bent forward in his seat, his head resting in the cup of his hands. I didn’t...
