The Greatest Firefighter Stories Never Told

by Allan Zullo, Mara Bovsun, Mike Santangelo

Book Overview

The firefighters who lost their lives in the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center have become well-known-and rightfully so. But firefighters throughout America risk life and limb every day,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0740728202
• ISBN13: 9780740728204
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
• Length: 210 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Remembering Especially the Firefighter Heroism on 911 and at the OLA School Fire

There are many different instances, covered in this small book, where firefighters had to risk their lives. These include the aftermath of the Mexico earthquake, arson-for-profit situations, the burning WTC towers on 911, and the Our Lady of the Angels School Fire of December 1958. I focus my review on the latter two. Imagine being in a skyscraper that is collapsing, hearing the sounds of the floors pancaking above you, and realizing that you have only seconds to live. But, fortunately for these-discussed firefighters in WTC 1, the lowest few stories of the staircases weren't crushed, and so the firefighters got their reprieve from death. The account of the OLA Fire (pp. 35-48) is quite detailed for its brevity. It gives a summary of the course of the fire, and also recounts the experiences of two firefighters, Charles Kamin and Richard Scheidt. Kamin laddered Room 211 (an 8th-grade class) and, pulling children out of the windows, dropped them below (He realized that he had no time to climb up and down the ladder with them). It was a race against time, measured in seconds. Boys' shirts were already turning colors from the heat, and glasses worn by students had started to melt. Then Room 211 flashed over: "Twenty-six children were still inside, but there were no more screams coming from Room 211." (p. 42). But he had managed to snatch perhaps 10 children from certain death (pp. 47-48). Firefighter Scheidt is best known from the famous LIFE Magazine photo of him carrying the body of a child. Scheidt's men had broken through a wall to a classroom while the building was still well ablaze, and, hoping that some of the children were still alive, carried them out for resuscitation attempts. Unfortunately, for all of them, it was already too late.

What A Great Book!

I really enjoyed reading this book. It truly exceeded my expectations. I would recommend it to just about anyone.

A Good Book but a Little Insensitive

The first reviewer is correct in saying that this is a very good book full of thrilling stories about firefighters which I have truly enjoyed. However, I was surprised and disappointed in the story entitled, "A Weighty Matter", where a firefighter is justly concerned about how he is going to get a woman who weighs 75 lbs. more than he does out of a burning basement in a nightclub. That he is annoyed by this is understandable given that her life and his were in the balance. His attitude towards her weight while human would have been better left out of the story, however. The other survivors and victims in this book were portrayed with compassion and respect while this terrified, overweight woman was not. The authors mentioned that the woman never came back to thank this firefighter. My guess is that she got out with her life but not with her dignity. I am a great fan of firefighters and appreciate as much as any civilian can the dangers and uncertainties that they face every day. I can understand the firefighter's feeling the way he did about this woman and that he only joked with her to ease the tension. I can understand the comments he may have made about her size back at the firehouse where tension is released after the dangers faced every day. And mostly, he risked himself to save her life. I just don't feel that his feelings and attitudes should have been published in this book. She deserves more respect than that.