Speaking from personal experience, the job is a love-hate relationship with the fire. Don't let anyone fool you. Fire is a living thing. It breathes, it feeds, it grows, it procreates, and it has a good side and a bad side. Fire speaks, moans, screams, and it is intelligent. In addition, like most other living things, it will fight to preserve itself. Am I giving the beast too much credit? I think not. Lost in the dense mists of time immemorial is the story of how man first made the decision to tame this animal he dubbed fire. We have come a long way since then, and yet the beast is still so unpredictable, her nature so complex, that when she comes off with a new trick, we write it down in our battle logs as a "tragedy". For us, it is. For her, it is a victory. She continues to evolve as we continue to evolve. We create new places for her to take refuge, and she moves in, much to our chagrin. Without us, the beast cannot exist comfortably. Without the beast, we cannot exist comfortably. We need the battle as much as she does, and rarely do we engage her on a field of combat of our choosing, which increases the challenge, as well as the risks. She will quickly remind you that it was US that initiated the relationship with our curiosity and love of dangerous things. It is, at the end of the day, a urinating contest. A control fetish for both the firefighter and the flame. We seek to control her, and she seeks to control us. Even if we cease to utilize combustion in any of her varied and sundry forms, heat for our dwellings, fuel for our automobiles, explosives for our construction and entertainment, she will continue to thrive in the world we have created for her, even if only in the form of lightning-generated forest fires and, yes, even rust on our sheet-metal roofing. In conclusion, I would ask all firefighters to consider the notion that, though we fight the beast that threatens life and property--fire--we must also respect that selfsame beast as a worthy opponent, and give her the position of honor she deserves, and remember what Nitze said: One must take care when hunting monsters that one does not one's self BECOME a monster, for when you look long into The Abyss, The Abyss looks also into you."