>> you did an excellent job. [applause] >> what was the best story you did not print? >> i the guy left to the good ones in their. i have to tell you. but that is a good question. anyone else?

bylaws to enough of my life have to start dying my hair but it was fun and i heard earlier today we talked about preserving the voices of the elders of that is important ever so happy i got to do that. it is your history what you grow up with. that was an honor. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

>> can you hear me very well out there? thank-you capt. from the fire department and chairman of the curator of the fire rescue museum for being a host and organizer of this event. think you to the fire department in the chief for allowing station one to be a part of this event. this is local 68 annual retirees luncheon. the faq list is really long

it will have to be short and incomplete if you were left out my apologies to you were not forgotten. to my union local officers specifically nick our president and the retiree association officers the president and a newsletter editor. think you to c-span for what you do to cover this event and thank you to my publisher and front. finally think you for being here it is good to be here with old friends and colleagues it is good to see you at this defense. -- event. flames and smoke visible is a book about you as well as

me. of there is nothing in this book the you have not experienced in your own way. i want to make that clear. firefighting is a calling and if it isn't when you were hired god you discover it was all along. but you did not know it and until you got the job ben was infected you did not know it to. true firefighters love the fire ground a place of danger and hard work we're good deeds are done and a place where professional colleagues come together to accomplish this simple act to save life am protect property. is a calling and like all of you i consider it a privilege to be a

firefighter and a special privilege as part of this fire department. flames and smoke visible is a memoir depicting our experiences here that reads like fiction because i a writer of fiction so i am glad that i did. this begins as a wake snippets 3:00 in the morning of the dispatcher and announces a house fire at an address located at the district and as soon as they swung with legs over the side and i stood up i knew there was something wrong with me. i was not right. was not myself in fact, i collapsed during the

incident and was transported to the hospital in an ambulance. suddenly that night i was on the other side of my occupation. that night was the catalyst for breaking this book. about what it means writing something about that section. every person has sometimes or another asks what does it mean to be a sign the? of mother? and adult? a nurse or a soldier? fire fighters must intercoms to save lives and property they see people at their most vulnerable. what does that mean when a

person's privacy or dignity has been compromised? a fire fighters seize more death and destruction in the average person asking the question of what it means is almost inescapable over and they have survived the fire but lost possessions? it is an extension of who we are in the aftermath of a fighter all that remains is the skeleton of dreams is a work of art or a child's toy what is it to be without? that chronicles generations of families birth and marriage and death. firefighters are often present at that moment but

what does it mean when you are no longer? because there is still being given having been sometimes the firefighter who survives the links to the men and women he works with. i am that survivor and i had to ask myself the question what does it mean if you are no longer able to do your job? in answering that question i had to look backward these are some of the stories as i remember them. also to deal with the present that was spent in the hospital with another man who had no memory. he could only live in the present. 19 years old one moment and that is said he was 19 the

next yesterday he was aged tomorrow he would be a race car driver. he could describe defense and although we tragic case it was with the infectious sense of joy. what is it to be a person with no memory are past or future and on the a fictitious present? a small case in point about having no answers is this. where does he go when he leaves the fire station? that is what i asked myself there was the unofficial firehouse dog the best way is to read a couple of pages he falls under the chapter

heading and it goes like this. >> seven sections of clothesline four sections of my sight three on his there is no more sleep tonight. you have got the right to. sandro's the injun several feet past the station impressed the door opener because the streets were vacant we did not bother to get off to direct traffic. as soon as the back to the station we opened a side door to the jump seat compartment.

engine 15 in quarters. than four. i went to the we are of the station but as soon as the dollar rose by saw bear standing at the threshold. i wrote to him what you doing years early-morning? he did not respond to human presence he did not set jumping or wag his tail. what do we have here this morning? as he approached the we are of the station? directed he is hungry. i will give him some leftover chicken. don't give him bones. i went to the galley will be enrolled those parker will be right out. throw on some coffee while you're in there.

there followed me to the galley door but he remained on the apparatus floor. he never entered our living quarters. their weapons weary and neglected. been added to the bone if provoked and short and stout and dirty and mangy with black hair and in screwball he looked like a black bear and that was his firehouse name. i opened the refrigerator to chicken breast off the plates and pulled the meat off then i looked through the plexiglass of the frame door and saw bear sitting patiently on the floor. i'm coming i said. until the porcelain bowl of water pushed open and put a handful of meat on the floor

he would smith the chicken than carefully probed it with his paw. are you albright? he looked at me as if you were waiting for me to go back into the galley so he could be undisturbed. you pour creature. one of these days i will go something about you. i opened to the galley door and held it open momentarily. where do you go when you leave your? what do you do? pour thing. eat. i don't know what happened to bear. but for me he has a special place in my heart. it is a lot of air on the ground, the alarm fires comment kitchen fires, house fires, they are all there but also when i have done is to approach each fire incident from a different point of view such as us

ledger it the nozzle man the backup at capt. in the latter company or in gin company growing house on the fairgrounds even baby deliveries on a accidents and to get the idea one thing i want to accomplish in this book is to give the civilian citizen reader and agitating view of what a firefighter does. to show the anatomy piece by piece and go by a single through story and action and what you hear as retirees should get from this book for this story is entertaining reminder of

what we did when we were on the job. i have chosen a brief incident that will give some sense of the fire ground for the action this deals with the latter company where i spent most of my career filling in at that particular station and the heading is called man of truck. it goes like this. >> a3p stationary engine engine, ladder truck and a third district battalion chief car i was assigned for 24 hours.

and then than one house fighters and then the latter response flames and smoke visible. then filtered into the apparatus floor from all directions the galley doors cover the barracks and the hallway leading to the offices. one man came from the outside and another came from the workshop. a beehive field with activity then dashed to the stations struggled into their turnout coats and the latter with out uttering a word. this momentary silence with the startup of diesel engines went in and the drain sorrels to the overhead door of radio chatter fills the air as men

have a the cylinder faults into the heavy weather on the left side of the station the engine was on the right side the chief car was behind. lightning and thunder the sudden glare of sirens to accelerate to virginia beach boulevard followed by the of ladder truck took the immediate right through powerful speech. the streets were flooded there was little traffic as soon as i slipped on my a gloves i contemplated the ancient elements that i was about to be fully immersed water, wind, fire, i loved it. god help me i loved it. latter attend which stops

two hookup a hydrant geoffrey passed in june 14 and was in command. is the lead driver operator with the hydraulic pump setting the brakes then jumps out of the lieutenant went to the left side of the latter employ about baldy said the other pair jack saw on the right side. then he went to the we are of the latter to climb up to the turntable repositions itself to the pedestal as soon as the jacks were emplaced he elevated the ladder and slowly rotated until the tip was pointing to the roof of the house

then the were the ladder until the beans wrestle against the side of that house. with the ladder imposition they said that ladder i are to myself with an ax and a roof ladder at tolidine tool and is saw that uses the solid circular blade to cut to the shingle the tar paper and the would. of blinding flash of lightning momentarily paralyzed us. of the lieutenant steadied the burning structure with the house again to will. take that and said it in place you are with me. against a turntable climbing

into position and this guy a would cause us to flinch unconscious. the started to climb the aerial. and then to follow me up. a crack of lightning splits the sky threatening to kill the world. that is a small sense. but as i also told you i understand what it means to be as well as to be but it has been. so i would weave a story about relationships with a fellow patient to occupies a bet at the window from a

semi private room. he was a man who have lost is the identity. he has a rare diseases to chronic at alcoholism destroys brain cells from depletion of the vitamin there no longer able to add new memory but the person is able to hide his memory loss he fabricates stories and doesn't even know it. pat dye was my roommate and i will introduce you by reading is the that dramatizes my interaction with him. he would call the data instead of deity and it goes under the heading they are

not aliens. >> data -- dana are you asleep? bagasse and that the hospital. >> we are? right back where i started. you don't make any sense. dana i have got to get you out of this joint purdue are cracking a pie was in solitary confinement would lead to 60 days as a pow. >> iceland by feat over my bet. was that vietnam? he scrutinized me whether the held d.c.? i am too young to be the first world war. i put the heart monitor into my waistband and would move

past the foot of the dead by a stretch through the of landscapes of rooftops which comprises of several levels of one of the nearby roof three men were working on a large air conditioning unit. as i study the main unscrew he widely approaches the window and stood beside me. he pressed his forehead against the window and whispered they are real. they are not aliens. >> to carefully surveyed me. kevin directed his attention back. look get all those.

that used to be a firecracker. i suppose we have come a long way i snickered. what? add beer would taste might be good just about any food would taste good drinking canadian mist is not the best or the worst liquor. with resolve i continued to leap into whatever direction kevin was taking me into but yes? too much a legal hold in your stomach and kill you. even upright will kill you it makes you feel like cal. once the results:the stomach and things start leaking through it is over. forget it. >> i can believe that. he presses his forehead

against the window that appeared to be an effort to study the maintenance crew more intently. what happened? every skids and went to church what happened? what did i do? i have been straight up and down with you god. he turned his attention to me to keep his head pressed against the window and said but he hasn't told me nothing. i would really like to get out of your -- here. at first i was perturbed if i was placed in a room with a psychiatric patient but after awhile i grew to like kevin end as you probably noted to go along with this

through the tragic event there are times when i felt cavanagh was fully present but i don't know that for sure. i picked several other incidents to read that are typical and a typical and i will read them time permitting upon your request during q&a. chapters of delivering a baby car fire, and others. but with that said i will close this presentation in two previous full circle to a college local 68 in a duel retiree legend at the fire department's station one we are here.

we are those retirees who have the privilege to serve in public safety and i have been fortunate to be able to write about us so i will end of this presentation with power ended my book with a poem that address is a subject that all of us will recognize because it is about witnessing the aftermath of property destruction while standing ankle deep in water that is also the heading of the chapter that goes like this. a skewed water colors smudged and cracked haiti on the long hallway in a burned out structure from the blaze face to face some both walls landscapes and seascapes

losses by firemen in a goal deepwater tired from the battle. over all looked decor their existence forgotten from the spectacle of destruction. upon the one thing my loneliness is amplified upon the broken beauty briefly captured by the silence my admiration and appreciation remains of the still life. a still life. that is the point of this closing poem there is life after retirement life after being a firefighter beloved to work with those professionals who safeguard our streets.

our people find people who place the lives of allied every time they're on duty to protect the citizens of the nation and to all nations. a war waged every day and every city in the country and in this world. one that is generally ignored by most citizens and tell there directly involved but until then those of us who are employed with public safety irritated for granted. and i suppose that is a worthy to estimate concerning how well we do our job. and this is a good a place as any to end this presentation to provide you with the opportunity to risk questions. thank you. [applause] >> we are on schedule i know

everyone stomachs are growing. few would like to ask a question i can bring a the microphone to year-old then we will move to dinner. i have one question. after the book was published was there anything in particular you wish he would have left out or put in the book? >> no. there is always more you want to put into a book and you always find that moment where you find you could have written a better all