"If you have tears, prepare to shed them."
—Frank McCourt
"In the firehouse, the men not only live and eat with each other,
they play sports together, go off to drink together, help repair one
another's houses, and, most important, share terrifying risks; their
loyalties to each other must, by the demands of the dangers they face,
be instinctive and absolute."
So writes David Halberstam, one of America's most distinguished reporters and historians, in this stunning New York Times
bestselling book about Engine 40, Ladder 35, located on the West Side
of Manhattan near Lincoln Center. On the morning of September 11, 2001,
two rigs carrying thirteen men set out from this firehouse: twelve of
them would never return.
Firehouse takes us to the epicenter of the tragedy. Through
the kind of intimate portraits that are Halberstam's trademark, we watch
the day unfold—the men called to duty while their families wait
anxiously for news of them. In addition, we come to understand the
culture of the firehouse itself: why gifted men do this; why, in so many
instances, they are eager to follow in their fathers' footsteps and
serve in so dangerous a profession; and why, more than anything else, it
is not just a job, but a calling.
This is journalism-as-history at its best, the story of what happens
when one small institution gets caught in an apocalyptic day. Firehouse is a book that will move readers as few others have in our time.
