Fighting Fire

This book had all the potential to become one of my favorites. As a young, aspiring female firefighter I anticipated finding in Paul a trailblazing mentor I could look up to. Instead I found myself faced with a colossal disappointment.First of all, she begins the book by mentioning her sexual escapades with a girl in college. Is that really necessary to the tale of becoming a firefighter, or did she just throw that in to sell a few extra copies of this book?? Next, not only does she take her testing with SFFD lightly, she repeatedly insults the profession throughout the book, all the way to the end. She grimaces with distaste and embarrassment that it is "blue collar work", god forbid! What will her Stanford friends think? Gasp!Furthermore, she seems high maintenanced and hyper sensitive when relating to the men of the department. She waxes on for years about some stupid fire station prank that a captain pulled on her. In my department, if you never have any good natured pranks pulled on you, you basically are not perceived as part of the family! It's a GOOD thing to be part of the jokes, and a healthy boost to morale.For a Stanford graduate, she seems to really have a hard time grasping simple concepts. "What does this mean?" seems to be her mantra throughout the book. This is not rocket science, it's firefighting. While academy certainly gives us a lot of information to process, it's pretty basic concepts!Finally, I find it hard to like her as a person due to her seemingly high level of conceit, which she unsuccessfully tries to disguise as modesty. She never fails to inform the reader of how beautiful or talented she is. Granted, the female firefighters of yesterday deserve to pat themselves on the back for making it a bit easier for us now, and I am truly humbled when in the presence of those female captains today. But Paul is a far cry from those aggressive women who refused to let a boys club like the fire department keep them out, fighting for their profession because they saw it as a noble and meaningful one. Paul is the opposite of the kind of women I seek out to train and mentor me, and I feel she gives women in the fire service the kind of negative press that anti-diversifying departments crave.

Interesting inside view of the way fire-fighting is now done, the "super-macho" culture it spawns, and historical record of a brave woman who took on the challenge of "making it" in the sometimes hostile, sometimes indifferent quasi-military structure of the modern firehouse. You will never again just call them "fire trucks" after you read Paul's insightful description of engines vs. ladders, and never again misunderstand the "charge the fire" method, or the crazy idea of climbing on the roof of a burning building to chop holes in it to "vent" the fire.SF has unusual challenges to the firefighter, such as: tall, steep roofs on crazy-quilt 3-story buildings; lead and other toxics from the 19th Century; crazy people getting into chemical problems, and so much more.Quite an intellectual memoir, unusual in this genre. An objective account and interesting reading, even if you disagree with the current bureaucratic fire hierarchy and their "fire brigade" ideas.

Love this book; have read it over five times. The best part is her description of fighting fires..you can actually feel the heat of the fames as she fights the fire from the nozzle point. She could be a Joseph Wambaugh or Gina Gallo of fire fighting if she wanted to be. I think she's trying to go in a more literary direction, but I'd really like to see more fire fighting books out of her. The part of the book that surpised me was the "east coast" idea that a fire fighter was a "lowly" blue collar job. I'm from San Francisco, and here everyone looks up to the position of fire fighter as a very special job, that only a few chosen can do. It never occurred to me that people looked at fire fighters in any other way.

I love Caroline Paul's writing. This was a very good book on many levels, learning about firefighting and firefighters and also about women's entry into the brotherhood. It was pretty gory in parts, which I could have probably done without.

As someone who knows someone who worked at the SFFD, this book really opened my eyes into what firemen do and go through. Also, as someone whose girlfriend lives in the Oakland Hills, the chapter about the Oakland Firestorm in 1991 brought back many awful memories - the fire stopped one hill away from her house after 3 days of evacuation! Not an easy read, especially the last chapters. So different to The Lost Cat!Gwyn

Sometimes the trouble with a book is not in what it reveals, but what it does not. Paul is a marvelous storyteller, and I couldn't put the book down. Perhaps then it's a function of success that I wanted her to tell more. Missing, except in tantalizing little bits, is an account of how her fire-fighting life informs or connects to her intimate one: granted, she reconciles with a parent and embraces faith, and maybe the rest of what I'm curious about just has to wait for her autobiography. Ultimately, however, it's unsatisfying to be told everything, and nothing, at the same time. She thanks someone in the Acknowledgements, for instance, for "putting up" with it/her, but who is putting up with what is never glimpsed in the text itself. And that's too bad. It feels like something's missing. Perhaps it's the real Caroline Paul.

GREAT BOOK! at first its kinda slow but it picks up and you wont want to put the book down. I read it in a couple days and was very sad when it was over it was like a great movie!!!I want to be a female firefighter too so lots of respect to Caroline Paul!!!

Delivery was just as promised & the book was in the condition as stated....better I thought😊..I was very pleased & would definately purchase from this seller again!