Into the Fire: My Life as a London Firefighter

by Edric Kennedy-Macfoy

The incredible true story of life as a London firefighter. What is it really like to be a firefighter? How does it feel to respond to an emergency call, to know that someone's life hangs in the balance and every second is critical? What is it like to fight a fire, to battle through the heat and the smoke, to put your own life in danger to save others? How elated do you feel to rescue survivors, to reunite families, and how devastating is it to recover the bodies of those who you didn’t reach in time? How do you cope with the trauma of a life spent facing death? Into the Fire offers an unforgettable insight into the highs and lows of life in the fire service. Edric Kennedy-Macfoy has spent over a decade serving in the London Fire Brigade, attending many of the capital's biggest incidents, from the blaze at Grenfell Tower to the Croydon tram derailment. This is his remarkable story

Genres: Nonfiction, Autobiography, Memoir, Firefighters

576 pages, Hardcover

First published May 3, 2018

Reviews

[Dave Waterman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Being a former colleague of the author, and also having attended the Grenfell Tower fire on a relief ordering, and working with the author at the incident, I believe I am in a reasonably qualified position to comment on the veracity of the author's claims regarding one of the incidents detailed in his book.

The facts are that the Grenfell Tower fire was all but extinguished when he arrived and the scene was relatively safe when he made his first entry.

Considering the writing, the author has portrayed his role at this incident in such an ambiguous way to lead readers to believe he was part of the initial deployment. For instance:

'The blaze had been burning for hours...'

The blaze, which had burned for hours, was largely extinguished when the author arrived.

Further:

'No firefighter should ever turn down an urgent request from another crew at a large-scale incident like this. It was my duty to go where I was needed...'

The author was detailed to lead a crew from Battersea but disregarded that duty to join a crew from another fire station.

Furthermore:

'I would be walking into a death-trap, a building which was fully on fire...'

The building had been a death-trap for the initial attending crews but was relatively safe and the fire was out by 10:30.

Even further:

'It seemed very probable that firefighters were going to lose their lives...'

Much earlier it seemed very probable that firefighters were going to lose their lives.

So if you enjoy fiction dressed up as fact, this will be right up your street.

But the most despicable issue with this work is that the author chose to totally disregard the instruction of his employer to remain quiet about the Grenfell Tower fire and allow the victims and their families to have the tragedy properly examined at the public inquiry.

Whether that affects the reader's enjoyment of the book is a matter for the reader. But one would expect accurate detail and consideration for the victims of fire in a book claiming to be a beacon of positivity and light.

[Spartan Ranger ☢ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Into the Fire: My Life as a London Firefighter
E. Kennedy-Macfoy, 2018
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I woke up shorty before 5 a.m. and had a quick look at my phone; bad habit in the middle of the night. I checked my messages and found nothing particularly interesting, then switched to my internet browser and a news site. The main story was about a fire at a block of flats in north-west London called Grenfell Tower. The pictures were shocking. This huge tower block completely alight and massive flames set against the night sky.

❀ Cover ❀
There are different interesting cover versions of the book and each of them is very nice. I understand why taking the same colour for the text and the helmet of the firefighter on the cover, but I think a bright red colour would fit a bit more because ... red = fire brigade, you know? (though ... there are yellow fire trucks, too as far as I know ... anyway).

♤ Story ♤
Since it's a nonfiction book telling a true story, there is no such a story or a plot. So let's talk about the order of the things, the author is telling.
The book starts with the events at the Grenfell Tower and Kennedy-Macfoy describes his job at this day and how shocking it was to see so many dead bodys - especially women and children - in the tower, after he had to go in and see how many bodys they can find. Then he switched to the past and starts telling how everything started - from his youth, how he tried to be an aduld and care for his younger brother, especially after their mother died, to the start of his career as a firefighter. What follows are reports on different jobs he had, starting with "fake calls", going to animal rescues and the tragic event of Croydon.
The book ends a year after Grenfell when Kennedy-Macfoy decided to quit his career as a firefighter.
In my opinion there could have been more reports on different jobs; the story focused a lot on his emotional situation during the years and he also mentioned and described the time when he joined the Police to bridge over the time before he could join the fire brigade. And I was like "Okay... I thought this book is about a firefighter?". Okay, it's part of his life, but I'm really not that interested in this part. So, please, more firefighting!

♢ Characters ♢
Our main character is the author of the book himself and it's finally a book where you can really see how mentally damaged a firefighter can be. Sure, he's talking a lot about his feelings and the problems that bother him after jobs, but that's the life of many firefighters. Maybe a lot of people complain about it but I think it's important to show that a firefighter is vulnerable and with how many things they have to deal - sometimes even without the help of a supporting centre or so.

And please, don't start complaining "Ooooh he only went in AFTER the most things were done at Grenfell and did he even do something in there?". Seeing dead bodies and going into a still burning tower is an important duty and it can traumatize you so much and you say he is only "crying"? Maybe you can take his position and go into the tower? Let's see how you will feel after that experience. (No hate, but I hate people who think he did "nothing" in there and as I've read some other reviews on the book, many people were complaining about it.)

♧ Setting ♧
There wasn't really a description of the places he has been - I think everything I could imagine was because I've seen some of the pictures of the events on TV.

♡ Overall ♡
This book gives you a good insight a firefighter's emotions and the battles he is fighting in his head. Here it's a very bad situation since the author had to take different professions and different jobs to care for himself and his younger brother. But I think that he handled everything very good and that in the end he was diagnosed PTSD doesn't surprise me. I don't want to know how many firefighters are out there who have PTSD and don't even know about it or who can't get any help. I wished this book could make people understand, how hard this job can be and that even a "small" job can really damage your mental status (I know what I'm talking about).
Aynway, I wished for more stories of his life as a firefighter - I mean, certainly there have been many other interesting jobs he had to do during his watches but he doesn't tell us!
What was really interesting is that much of the equipment he is using - though it has different names - is the same as the one we are using. As he decribed the different gadgets I thought "That's exactly the same as we use".

[Elsie]

I refuse to star rate this ridiculous attention seeking farce of a book. It shouldn’t have been published with the amount of deplorable descriptions of victims & shouldn’t have been published after his actions at Grenfell were discredited.

This ‘author’ is nothing but a liar.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edric was one of the firefighters called in to deal with the tragic Grenfell disaster in 2017. He always thought he was okay and could deal with anything the job threw at him. Grenfell changed everything and writing this book is one of the ways he's found to get past what he saw. The first few chapters focusses on Grenfell before going to on to talk about Edric's life and career in general. This is moving in parts and an interesting look into what being a firefighter involves.

[Martin Hopwood · Rating 1 out of 5]

A book that has so much potential but that in fact should probably be in the fiction section due to an author who is completely obsessed with portraying himself as the hero and victim in a story of his life that really shows him as out of control and a maverick. The fact that he speaks little of good working relationships and friendships during his time at LFB and any off his many other workplaces shows that he was not a team player and everything was all about himself. No wonder he kept getting shipped off on standby - he was a liability. I only listened to the end for the entertainment value of listening to him spout some absolute rubbish of his ‘heroics’ at every incident he attended.

[Sammie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely romped through this book on a 4 hour flight.

This was an accidental find. Someone had left it on a walk way in our hotel and I walked past it for 3 days, continually saying "if that books still there I'll take it." It was still there... & it did not disappoint.

This isn't a story with a plot. It is anecdotes that shaped Edric's long standing career.

Whilst on the plane, I was shocked, mortified, upset, and in awe.

Firefighters don't get as much recognition as they should, and this book highlights that they are the unsung heroes of our emergency services.

[Mandy Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this before reading reviews and I enjoyed it. It was hard to read sometimes because there were very sad things in it,I don’t think any of us will ever forget Grenfell Tower and obviously there were other stories from his job too. I found it interesting learning about his background,about his thoughts and emotions in certain situations and his passion for the job shine through. After seeing what he saw in his job no wonder it took its toll. After reading reviews I still thought he was brave and still had to deal with seeing and smelling awful things.He was good at his job and the newspapers printed more victim details at the time than what was in this book. I hope he is proud of himself and happy.

[Ellesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edric is a former London Firefighter serving in a number of different stations over thirteen years. In his book ‘Into The Fire’ we read about some of the tragedies that Edric has attended over the years and with some slightly light-hearted tales.
We begin with one of the worst tragedies in recent years in the UK, Grenfell, the tower that light up London with fire. Edric wasn’t one of the first firefighters there and doesn’t claim to have been but he tells us of his experiences, the heart-breaking task he was asked to perform, a search for victims of the fire.
I’ve seen there are some criticism around how the author describes Grenfell and his experiences of it, I can understand their concern regarding the timing of the book, however, I think the way he describes his feelings and what he has seen is true to him. He talks about arriving and seeing other people lay on the floor resting after they have been inside the building, at no point does he put down anyone else’s effort. Edric tells one side, his side, of the story. In time there may well be many others and each one will be unique.
The book wasn’t focused on just the Grenfell tragedy, there were other incidents, some shocking and extremely saddening including the Croydon Tram crash. There were many times when I was reading that I wanted more information on incidents, many of them didn’t feel detailed enough, never getting the full story, having said that I understand and respect that all of the incidents affect real people.
I was completely disgusted to read about the treatment of Edric by the police, I get they were under pressure but that is no way to treat a person and is certainly not justice. It could not have helped Edric’s mental health. The book felt like it was something the author needed to do, to try and cope with what he had seen and the loss of his mother, who sounds like an amazing woman.

[Stephanie Parnell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I DNF’d at roughly 50% I probably would have finished if I hadn’t gone with the audiobook. I never understand authors reading their own books cause they aren’t voice actors and you need that to read even a non fiction book. The writing was simplistic which can be overlooked since he’s a firefighter not a writer but I just couldn’t get into it.
Also found it odd that he abandoned his team for another; like he just wanted to go in and then later chastised his crew for complaining that they didn’t get to go in to Grenfell tower. It seemed like a Ghoulish thing rather than anything else, just so he could say “I was there”

[Danielle Elton · Rating 1 out of 5]

Complete rubbish considering he arrived at Grenfell when the fire was nearly out.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would have had 5 stars if the author had started at the beginning rather than with the Grenfell Tower.

I found his early years as a firefighter fascinating!

[Pipa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fantastic insight into the fire brigade. A good mixture of anecdote and education - although I did find that during some of the more technical aspects (particularly discussing risk assessments etc) I began to glaze over a bit. There was also a great variety of experiences to show just how varied a fireman’s job is; body recovery, dealing with chemical spills, and working with paramedics during road traffic accidents are just a few examples of jobs that don’t even involve dealing with fire.

It was heartbreaking to read about Grenfell - both the harrowing details about what was inside, and the horrible mental aftermath on so many firefighters. I understand the logic of writing about Grenfell first; you want to hook the reader. However part of me wishes he has written chronologically, as learning about the rest of his journey in the job, it helped put the tragedy into more context. Not to say the rest of the book wasn’t interesting, but after that I wasn’t really sure what the book was building to. Especially as his discussion of how he has dealt with life beyond Grenfell was summed up in a quick two or three pages at the very end (which felt like a rushed end).

The author seems like a genuinely lovely guy and has been through such a lot in his life. I wanted to give him a hug quite a lot of the time. I was totally outraged by his terrible treatment when off-duty by the police and this just goes to show how far we still have to go in dealing with institutional racism. It’s a testament of great patience and strength of character that he did not hold grudges. Perhaps coming across as a bit too good at times - I lost count of the number of times I read “I understand why people would do _____, but I have and would never do it myself”. It sometimes came across as a little bit insincere.

I guess when writing a memoir you naturally would try to paint yourself in the best light possible. This man reads as a truly great guy and is a genuine hero - I just think perhaps the way it was written in parts got me a bit. I think he was trying too hard to be modest and self-effacing. He wouldn’t be the first British man to do that!

Overall, fascinating, heartbreaking and informative. Would recommend.

[Phil Rice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Into The Fire offers an unforgettable insight into the highs and lows of life in the fire service. Chronicling his thirteen year career in the London Fire Brigade, Edric takes us with him from his training days as a new recriut to his very first fire; from callouts to cannabis farms, chemical spills and trapped swans to the devastating scenes of road traffic collisons, the Croydon tram derailment and the Grenfell Tower fire.

Heart-breaking, deeply personal and at times hilarious, this is his remarkable story

[Ashleigh Cameron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful recollection of the Grenfell disaster from a firefighter's perspective.

Really outlines the hardships physically and mentally that crew members face day-to-day when attending incidents.

This book details the many failings that occurred at the site on that particular night - but from a live in-action perspective.

[India · Rating 3 out of 5]

Positives: Great insight into life as a firefighter, which I knew little about. I thought it was particularly important that the author included a discussion around how his mental health has been impacted by some of the incidents he has attended - hopefully this helps others to do the same.

Negatives: There was quite a bit of repetition, which could have been improved with better editing.

[Jamie Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good insights into life in the Fire Brigade, raided it for knowledge for an upcoming interview.

Easy fast paced read. Had it sitting on the last two chapters for weeks as I had gotten everything I need out of it.

[Josie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic, eye opening and griping. Thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish, the structure was brilliant, the narrative was honest, hard hitting but completely admirable. One of the few books I’ll happily read again. Recommend to everyone.

[Pete · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating account of what it's like to be a fire fighter in London - would definitely recommend.

[Augustus Amadeus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Odyssey by an empath.

[Sammie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5⭐️

[Nadia]

Not sure how to rate this one. Relatively interesting, but upon finishing and reading the reviews it looks like there’s a bit of controversy surrounding it.

[Ocean Belcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great insights if you're interested in joining the fire service. Lots of work anecdotes but not gripping.

[Sofia]

essentially torture porn, DNF

[Bella Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book! Exactly what I was looking for, I was nervous when I read the negative reviews on here but honestly I really enjoyed it!! Give it a go for yourself 🥰