On the tenth anniversary of 9/11, a portrait of tragedy, survival, and healing from the author of the New York Times bestseller Report from Ground Zero.
In this first book-length account of the rescue efforts at the World Trade Center, retired New York City firefighter Dennis Smith gives a remarkable eyewitness account of perhaps the most heroic and desperate collaborative disaster effort in recent history. Smith arrived on the scene shortly after the attacks on September 11 and stayed for weeks. He stretched hoses, picked up bodies, and talked with police, firefighters, and emergency workers who had rushed downtown to confront a spectacle no rescue worker had ever faced before.
In Report from Ground Zero, Smith gives us the stories of some of the 343 firefighters who were reported missing or dead, including; Captain Pat Brown from Ladder Company 3, who was a personal friend; a father and son; the department's beloved chaplain; commanders; rookies; and entire companies that were lost. Smith pays tribute to the dozens of police and emergency workers who died, as well as those who undertook an urgent search and rescue mission and, finally, the grim and daunting task of massive clean up.
Smith's rare blend of superb writing skills and up-close firefighting experience drop us into the psyche of a firefighter, which sheds light on what would make someone rush into a flaming building: it's called heroism.
At 5:12 a.m. on the morning of April 18, 1906, San Francisco was struck by one of the worst earthquakes in history, instantly killing hundreds. The ensuing fires that ravaged the city for days were responsible for the deaths of as many as 3,000 more. In all, 522 blocks and 28,188 buildings were leveled, and some 200,000 people dislocated.
This watershed event in American history has never before been told with the richness of historical detail and insight that our foremost historian of fire, Dennis Smith, brings to it in San Francisco Is Burning. Smith cinematically recounts this terrible tragedy through the stories of the people who lived through those terrible days'from a valiant naval officer who helped save the city's piers and wharves to Eugene Schmitz, the crooked mayor, to the "debonair scoundrel" Abe Ruef, the most erudite city boss in American history. Throughout, Smith reveals many unknown details about the event, from the city's great vulnerability to fire'due to its corrupt and hasty building practices'to the widespread racism the quake unleashed and the atrocities committed by national guardsmen. Told with verve and a seasoned firefighter's knowledge, San Francisco Is Burning is the gripping and definitive account of one of the greatest disasters of the twentieth century.
Dennis Smith worked as a firefighter in the South Bronx of New York City, and the graphic detail and gripping prose of this firefighting classic drives the most important, accomplished, terrifying book ever published on firefighting. With over two million copies in print, this book struck a nerve within the nation when it was first published thirty years ago. Today it gains even greater resonance for those still trying to make sense of the deaths of so many New York firefighters on September 11 and for those inspired by the tireless work of firefighters and other rescue personnel in the aftermath of the destruction. Dennis Smith describes the bravery, heroism, camaraderie, and unflinching courage of New York's bravest, demonstrating how firefighters everywhere have become the most respected of American heroes.
