There are numerous good books about our life. The classic Engine 82 written around when I started in the early 1970s still stands out. Dennis Smith went on to start Firehouse magazine and was a tailboard fireman of the first order. B-shifter by Nick Brunacini on Phoenix Fire tells it like it is. His Dad was Chief there and did much to modernize our profession. Medal of Valor by Michael Middleton tells the stories of the best of the best. It makes me humble to know I wore the same uniform as the men whose deeds are recounted in that book.

We all take the danger of our jobs as part of our lives. The people we leave at home every day don't share the excitement or the joy of the firehouse, just the worry. When I first met my wife she lived in our first-in area. She would hear the engine go out at night but not hear us return. When we moved to a distant city, I told her if anything happened to me a chief would come to the house to tell her. Years later, I was elected to a local fire board. One night when I was on duty, a local Battalion Chief came by the house to drop off some paperwork.

She saw the Chief's car and the uniform and would not open the door remembering what I had told her. He apologized for scaring her when she explained why she acted as she did. Our significant others have to be tough in ways we sometimes forget.