*With great appreciation to David Halberstam in his book, “Firehouse”.
One of the things that is very attractive about the fire-house is that it is the rare spin-free zone. In a world where the job of inflating the reputations of people with negligible larger social value has become a major growth industry, firefighters do what they do because they love doing it, not because they want the applause of outsiders. Instead, what they want is the respect of their peers. In some ways, theirs is a hermetically sealed world: Very few of their heroics are ever written about, and most of the great stories within the world of firefighting are passed on as part of an oral tradition, rather than in newspapers or on local radio and television newscasts.
Because of their tradtions and because of the way firefighters live and how much their knowledge is of one another, you cannot con anyone in a fire-house. Within the firefighters’ internal organization, you’re always being measured: it is a mandatory process given the constant danger they face when out on a call. The difference between their world and some more materialistic worlds is striking if you think about it.
P.S. Kudos to the women and men of the Watch Lake – North Green Lake Volunteer Fire Dept.
