FIRESTORM, The History of the New York City Fire Department War Years
ON THE BOOK SHELF
By John M. Malecky July, 2024
Firestorm! The History of the New York City Fire Department’s War Years
By John A. Calderone
Available from:
FSP Books & Videos
433 Main Street, Suite 2A
Hudson, MA, 01729
1-800-522-8528
E-mail: support@fire-police-ems.com
www.fire-police-ems.com
Price: $89.95
This is a hard cover coffee table book, measuring 8 ½ inches by 11 inches, with 256 pages, as well as 400 photos. The author, a good friend of mine, tells me that it took 10 years of research to compile along with the help of many who are acknowledged on page 3. The author has produced many best selling books, mostly on apparatus. He is a person who thoroughly researches what he writes about and has always surrounded himself with knowledgeable people to help him along the way. Hence, if you do not come across something, it just was not available through documentation. There are no actual chapters in the book. There is an introduction and sections on terminology and statistics. Following that are unit locations at the start of the war years and assigned apparatus at the time. It shows in particular how antiquated much of the vehicle fleet was, including some pumpers built without water tanks. It may seem odd, but there were actually some other cities with the same. For instance, Detroit did not start buying pumpers with water tanks until the early 1960's, however their truck companies had booster pumps and tanks. Stories of fires and other incidents are written in short, but to the point fashion, many of which are heartbreaking. There are photos of fires and fire stations, as well as many apparatus which brought me back to the older days when I was more up to date of the New York FD and I was able to find many trucks that I knew existed and the stories behind them. The author brings us out of the war years, even though there has never been a time frame denoting it. The last section is 1986, which is followed by an epilogue which is certainly worth reading through. The photos are color and are of apparatus, stations, fireboats, and fires, both routine and spectacular. It again is a book you would want to add to your library!
No information from the author.
