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Memoirs of a Volunteer Firefighter
The author recalls the many challenges and rewards of being a volunteer firefighter. Life lessons are learned in the bingo hall, on the training grounds, and in smoky burning buildings.
244 pages, Paperback
First published May 28, 2010
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October 31, 2012
It’s so nice to have a long weekend to finish a great book like the one I just did called Memoirs of a Volunteer Firefighter by Jason A. Borton, MD. For a person that has grown up around a volunteer fire house, I was really intrigued to hear a story of another person and how they were born into the life of firefighting.
To me being a firefighter is like next big thing to accomplish in life and it was the same for Jason, the main character of this book. He can recall when he would go to his grandmother’s house and “ On each visit to her house, I would beg my grandmother to take me to the fire station”(8). Throughout this whole book all you see are reflections of his journey as a firefighter which all started with the trips to the fire station with his grandmother.
Growing up with a family of firefighters you get to hear the uptight relations between paid and volunteer firefighters. This is a big problem all over the country but not as much for the Firefighters in North Tonawanda because each of their departments within the city consist of a paid staff as well as a full force of volunteers. As you get into the book further you learn that the relations between the two kinds of firefighters never was that way, in fact just about the opposite
The author writes this book as an autobiography and does so very well. From the title of the book you would think that this is all about the glorious moments of being a volunteer firefighter but to honest it’s not even close. Jason does a great job showing the happy moments of first becoming a firefighter as well as his first fire but he also shows the sad side of losing a brother firefighter. In the brotherhood of firefighting there are no such things as racial tensions, discrimination on sex, color, nationality, or religion but a bond that is like no other.
There is one big thing that I feel this book does very well. I feel it does a great job giving the readers a feel for the commitment and sacrifice that firefighters make day in and day out. The book talks also how some people make the ultimate sacrifice by giving up their life to protect the community in which they live. This is a very tragic thing in the firefighting community and take the lives of “just over one hundred firefighters”(141) per year.
Not only does this book talk about the lifestyle of a firefighter but it shows values that you can learn by being a firefighter. Such values include leadership, camaraderie, and responsibility. Values are not the only thing that you learn either. Many life lessons can be found around a fire house as well. Life lessons such as never leave a man behind, there may not be a second chance, and that laziness is not an excuse. The biggest thing that you can gain from being involved with a fire department is a second family.
To me being a firefighter is like next big thing to accomplish in life and it was the same for Jason, the main character of this book. He can recall when he would go to his grandmother’s house and “ On each visit to her house, I would beg my grandmother to take me to the fire station”(8). Throughout this whole book all you see are reflections of his journey as a firefighter which all started with the trips to the fire station with his grandmother.
Growing up with a family of firefighters you get to hear the uptight relations between paid and volunteer firefighters. This is a big problem all over the country but not as much for the Firefighters in North Tonawanda because each of their departments within the city consist of a paid staff as well as a full force of volunteers. As you get into the book further you learn that the relations between the two kinds of firefighters never was that way, in fact just about the opposite
The author writes this book as an autobiography and does so very well. From the title of the book you would think that this is all about the glorious moments of being a volunteer firefighter but to honest it’s not even close. Jason does a great job showing the happy moments of first becoming a firefighter as well as his first fire but he also shows the sad side of losing a brother firefighter. In the brotherhood of firefighting there are no such things as racial tensions, discrimination on sex, color, nationality, or religion but a bond that is like no other.
There is one big thing that I feel this book does very well. I feel it does a great job giving the readers a feel for the commitment and sacrifice that firefighters make day in and day out. The book talks also how some people make the ultimate sacrifice by giving up their life to protect the community in which they live. This is a very tragic thing in the firefighting community and take the lives of “just over one hundred firefighters”(141) per year.
Not only does this book talk about the lifestyle of a firefighter but it shows values that you can learn by being a firefighter. Such values include leadership, camaraderie, and responsibility. Values are not the only thing that you learn either. Many life lessons can be found around a fire house as well. Life lessons such as never leave a man behind, there may not be a second chance, and that laziness is not an excuse. The biggest thing that you can gain from being involved with a fire department is a second family.
Displaying 1 of 1 review