Fighting Fire

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Look Into SFFD's Darker Side
Review: Caroline Paul did an excellent job on this book! I will admit that when my uncle first sent it to me for christmas, I couldn't help but wonder, "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!?!?!" However, I gave it a shot and got swallowed up into the book itself, reading over half of it in a little less than 8 hours!

When I first got this book, I was just beginning to get into the fire service...Now, three years later I stand an 18 year old firefighter/emt, continuously enthusiastic to learn about my career's heritage and history!

I got the opportunity to meet Ms. Paul on a vacation to San Francisco with my family and was fortunate enough to get my book signed! She is a very kind and intelligent young woman and someone whom I look forward to more books from!

This is a must read for anyone, fire service or not! If you are looking to get into a truly great career, get started by reading this book...The imagery alone will keep your adrenaline pumping and you won't want to put this great book down!

Rating:
Summary: Intelligent and challenging
Review: Caroline Paul gives not only very interesting and thoughtful insights into the world of firefighting and rescue-work but has also written an intelligent and challenging comment about her difficulties of adapting to a "men's world" without loosing her independance of spirit. I liked especially her well- balanced approach to this problem, the realistic and often gripping tales from her work as a FF and her clear and appealing way of writing.
I've read that book three times ....

Rating:
Summary: WONDERFUL READ FOR EVERYONE
Review: Caroline Paul started life out as a privileged yuppie hopeful. She attended a posh boarding school and then Stanford University. She graduated with the hopes of a distinguished journalism career. Instead, she became a firefighter. FIGHTING FIRE is a riveting story of learning to adapt to a different way of life, with its own rules and traditions. There are burning building and singed bodies - I shed plenty of tears reading this book - but this is not only an adventure book. This is a deeply moving story of how people learn in the end to get along - in the firehouse and on the streets. This book is not a whiny monologue about a Poor Me woman in a man's world. Ms. Paul has a generous, humorous perspective about the people she meets and she is always willing to concede her foibles. It is a thrilling yet insightful read. Both my husband and my local librarian (neither one firefighters!) loved it - Fighting Fire has something for everyone.

Rating:
Summary: Realistic book on the fire service.
Review: This is one of the better books to read for anyone interested in what it is like to be a firefighter. Ms. Paul takes the reader on an experience that makes you laugh and cry at times. The reader gets to see the "real" fire service and how the men and women interact with one another. It reminded me of my first years in the service with it's accuracy. I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Superb book
Review: This superb "personal story" chronicles the adventures of Caroline Paul as she applies to, and joins, the SFFD as one of its first women firefighters. The story is a somewhat quick read, but very well-written, and gives the reader a sense of what it's like to be a firefighter, along with her personal experiences and reflections on her acculturation into what she first thought of as the "racist, sexist, fire department."
Paul skillfully combines her own story with the stories of others and history into a compelling account. She doesn't fall into the trap of assigning "good" and "bad" to people. She almost always explains the lingo she uses -- waiting, however, til the end to explain what a "full box" call is, and waiting to explain why firefighters (somewhat counter-intuitively) ventilate fires. At least a few photos would be helpful, too -- at least of the media event where she and her sister persuaded the government to release her animal rights-protestor brother from jail, and of the equipment and techniques she describes.
As a final note, the author photo appears to be of the author, in lipstick and make-up, daubed with a bit of dark smudge, wearing her fire helmet. Is the photo really meant to represent how she appears at work?