BY GERALD TRACY
Firefighting is the best job on earth, but it is also one of the most dangerous! I am privileged to have experienced and survived a 31-year fire service career. When I reported to the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) Fire Academy as a probationary firefighter, an instructor told us probies to look around, because “one of you may very well be killed in the line of duty!” Wow! I had served in Vietnam and wondered whether this was just a ploy to turn civilians into fire warriors. The military would use psychological tactics to get your head in the game because your life or your colleague’s life depended on your actions and performance. I was now beginning to understand the fire service was no different.
In the 1970s, training was condensed into six weeks to quickly rotate “new blood” into the field to battle the decline of the city. The FDNY was overburdened. On my first day with an engine company, I received my baptism by fire at a “job” in the West Farms section of the Bronx. The fire was in a commercial building, an occupancy for which the 2½-inch hoseline was mandated. It was an exhilarating experience, and I was somewhat apprehensive following these more senior members into the obscurity of thick, hot, gray, nasty smoke. Their presence encouraged me to surmount my anxiety. This was not the controlled atmosphere of the academy smokehouse; I was entering with fear and trepidation into the unknown. Even so, it gave me a greater understanding of some of what I learned in probie school.
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