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On Call: Memoirs of a Firefighter in Las Vegas, Nevada, Firefighter Paramedic & Arson Investigator
Locklier, Allen B
230 pages, Paperback
First published September 9, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 28, 2012
Christmas break is a great time to get caught up on reading and on reviews. The last book that I read was “On Call” by Allen B. Locklier Jr. Yet again this is another book about firefight but it’s one of the only kinds of books that I’m extremely interested in reading.
The last book I read about firefighting it dealt with a volunteer firefighter but this time it was about being a paid firefighter. In this case the firefighter we follow throughout the book is Allen and we go through both thick and thin within his writing. For many of his calls he said that “I had no idea what I was heading into”(12). Within the pages of this book we go through a 29 year reelection of Allen’s career as a firefighter/paramedic/fire investigator with the Las Vegas Fire Department.
Unlike the other firefighting books I have read this one shows nothing of paid firefighters bashing volunteers or vise versa. One part of this book that I did find difficult was that Allen liked to use slang terms throughout the book that were related to his work in the fire service but they didn’t even make sense to me and I know most of them.
Many people now days look at firefighters being big time “heroes” but in real life they are just ordinary people who like doing things that would terrify the rest of us. People also think that the only things that firefighters talk about are their horror stories to make them look good but most of the time it so they can “survive the psychological trauma and become a better firefighter”(23).
I really like how the author of this book didn’t use dates, locations, names, or other confidential information of patients and even of some of the other firefighters he worked alongside of. Also this book does a great job of letting the reader know what duties go along with each job Allen worked as in the fire service as wells as some of the perks it entailed. The other thing that I like about this book is that it talks about the joking that goes on around a fire house and most firefighting books don’t even mention that.
Allen may have liked to talk about the high and low points of his career in the fire service but he didn’t forget to leave out the most important part, how he decided to get into the fire service. People can come from all walks of life and make it in the fire service. The author of the book went from being a construction worker to being a firefighter with one phone call. It’s just like I heard from some of the firefighters I know, “All men are created equal, then a few become firemen”.
The last book I read about firefighting it dealt with a volunteer firefighter but this time it was about being a paid firefighter. In this case the firefighter we follow throughout the book is Allen and we go through both thick and thin within his writing. For many of his calls he said that “I had no idea what I was heading into”(12). Within the pages of this book we go through a 29 year reelection of Allen’s career as a firefighter/paramedic/fire investigator with the Las Vegas Fire Department.
Unlike the other firefighting books I have read this one shows nothing of paid firefighters bashing volunteers or vise versa. One part of this book that I did find difficult was that Allen liked to use slang terms throughout the book that were related to his work in the fire service but they didn’t even make sense to me and I know most of them.
Many people now days look at firefighters being big time “heroes” but in real life they are just ordinary people who like doing things that would terrify the rest of us. People also think that the only things that firefighters talk about are their horror stories to make them look good but most of the time it so they can “survive the psychological trauma and become a better firefighter”(23).
I really like how the author of this book didn’t use dates, locations, names, or other confidential information of patients and even of some of the other firefighters he worked alongside of. Also this book does a great job of letting the reader know what duties go along with each job Allen worked as in the fire service as wells as some of the perks it entailed. The other thing that I like about this book is that it talks about the joking that goes on around a fire house and most firefighting books don’t even mention that.
Allen may have liked to talk about the high and low points of his career in the fire service but he didn’t forget to leave out the most important part, how he decided to get into the fire service. People can come from all walks of life and make it in the fire service. The author of the book went from being a construction worker to being a firefighter with one phone call. It’s just like I heard from some of the firefighters I know, “All men are created equal, then a few become firemen”.
July 24, 2015
Stories pretty entertaining, spelling needs some work.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews