The Last Men Out

[Chasselber1]

Has anyone read Probie Days by Jerry Engle?

[N2DFire]

Little Thread Bump.

I just got a copy of this book (last men out) as a Christmas gift and although I have only been able to steal enough time to read the first couple of chapters, I can already see this is going to be a great book.

Read through here to see some of the other suggested titles so now I have to get back into reading (pleasure reading not text books) again.

[LADDER2EKU]

More good fire department books, although they are fiction, are Leo Stapletons writings. He has wrote 11 books and I have read all of them. Six of them are a series following the carreer od Fireman Donald Holden. It starts with his being hired and going through recruit school in the book ffops(firefighter on probation) and goes all the way through the rank of deputy fire chief. He also has several personal reflection books and a few other works of fiction.

Some other good fire department books are: Report from Eng. Co. 82, Lest Men Out, Braving the Flames, 3000 Degree's, Firehouse, Pride and Ownership, 20,000 Alarms, Fire Factory, The Donovan's, Heart Behind the Hero, Greatest Firefighter Stories Never Told, The Loo, Street Smart Firefighting, Tom Brennan's Random Thoughts.

[firefighter3419]

I read the last men out a few months ago, honestly one of the best books I have ever read!

[Motorhead90]

I HIGHLY reccomend Working Fire by Zac Unger, it's a memoir of his rookie years on the Oakland CA Fire Dept.

[wolfee27]

anyone know where i can get a copy of "last men out"?

Should be able to get right here through firehouse.com. I've had Borders and B&N special order copies of the above mentioned books for me.

First book I read in the biz .. "Report from Engine Co. 82". Great read, good history lesson about old school. One question, is it just me or was Dennis Smith portrayed as the greatest, ballsiest S.O.B to ever throw water?

Current book ... "Fire Lover" (left the book at work, so I can't tell you who wrote it ) About a California arson investigator and renowned expert on arsonists who ends up getting pinched for being a serial arsonist! True story!

[FireRescueEx]

anyone know where i can get a copy of "last men out"?

[footrat]

Firehouse by David Halberstam- VERY good book. Touching, poignant, and hard to read at times.

Fire Fighters: Stories of Survival from the Front Lines of Firefighting by various authors- Also a very good book. A lot of wildfire stories. A lot of the stories are written by firefighters, so the writing may not read quote like a professional author's work, but they're still easy and fun to read. Some of the works date back quite a bit. At the time that I first read it, I skipped over some of the stories, but I'm likely to go back and read them again.

The Last Men Out by Tom Downey- Great book. Moreso if you take into account that it's written by a non-firefighter. While he comes from a firefighting family, it's still tough to capture in writing what it's like to do this job. It's probably even harder to read an accurately written account of such and really grasp it fully if you've never done this job. I enjoyed this book, and it really reinforced where I want to go with my career, and the type of firefighter I want to strive to be.

I just started on So That Others May Live. I love history, so this will hopefully be a great book.

I'm also currently reading Report From Engine Co. 82. It's slower going for me. Not as exciting as the other books I've read. I've read three other books during the time that I've been reading Co. 82.

[GFDLT1]

After reading the posts here I went and read "The Last Men Out" I thought that it was a very good book. Long before this post I also read "Firehouse", "So Others Might Live" (history of FDNY), "3000 Degrees", "Report from Engine 82", "A Chicago Firehouse, Stories of Wrigleyville's Engine 78" ( I am a hugh Cubs fan), "Fighting Fire", "First In Last Out", "Collaspe of Burning Buildings", and "Fire Officer Handbook of Tactics". All were good books. I was a little surprised by "First In Last Out" I didn't realize it was more for the business world than the company officer. I do know that quite a bit can be used by the company officer but I was expecting something a little different than it was.

Right now I am reading "Random Thoughts" by Tom Brennan. Pennwell and Bobby Halton have put together all of Tom Brennan's Random Thought articles from the past 18 years and assembled them into a book. I loved his articles when he was alive, and now I am getting to read all of the ones that I missed that were written before I got into the fire service 10 years ago. After reading just a small portion of the book, I wish I would have had the oppertunity to have shared a beer with the man and just pick his brain. I suggest everyone get it whether you are new to the fire service or not.

[kprsn1]

Loved The Last Men Out too. Report From Engine Co. 82 by Dennis Smith was very good too.

[adamkhalil]

I'm also reading The Last Men Out right now and it's so far a very good book.

This books and First In, Last out are awesome.


Last Man Down or whatever seemed amazingly like, egotistical, to me, but then i read Report from Ground zero (i think it was...might have been a different 9/11 book) and read countless stories of people saying how that cheif saved their lives, so i kinda gave him a reprieve. There were so many heros that day, it has to be hard to write about the amazing things they did...especially if your writing about your self.

[Nate7123]

I'm also reading The Last Men Out right now and it's so far a very good book.

[Fireman06]

Pride & Ownership

Amazing Book, Everyone must read. Very easy to read. Just started First In Last out by Bat Chief John Salka.

[fortythreetwo]

I'm reading "The Last Men Out" now, I really like it so far.

[jrfirefighter23]

I have read both the "Last Man Down" and "3000 degrees", I though both of them were very well written, and I owuld suggest both of them to anyone looking for a good book to read.