Firehouse or To Sleep with the Angels

Firehouse

Author: David Halberstam

"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 importantly, 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 book about Engine 40, Ladder 35 - one of the firehouses hardest hit in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Towers. On the morning of September 11, 2001, two rigs carrying 13 men set out from this firehouse, located on the west side of Manhattan near Lincoln Center; twelve of the men would never return.

Firehouse takes us to the very epicenter of the tragedy. 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 and why in so many instances they are anxious to follow in their fathers' footsteps and serve in so dangerous a profession - why more than anything else, it is not just a job, but a calling as well.

Firehouse is journalism-as-history at its best. The story of what happens when one small institution gets caught in apocalyptic day, it is a book that will move readers as few others have in our time.

Bookpage

[Halberstam's] special contribution is to anatomize the culture that incubated and nourished these remarkable public servants.

Newsweek - Malcolm Jones

A clear-eyed but affecting group portrait.

San Francisco Chronicle - Peter Lewis

Firehouse leaves one feeling . . . personally touched . . . and grateful that there are ordinary people who possess such uncommon courage.

New York Times Book Review - James Traub

Graceful and moving.

Onion

It re-forms and endures.

USA Today - Bob Minzesheimer

Richly detailed . . . in structure and tone, it resembles John Hersey's 1946 classic Hiroshima.

People - Joe Heim

A poignant remembrance . . . Halberstam's achievement is remembering these men not just for how they died . . . for how they lived.

Newsweek

Halberstam writes in this always clear-eyed but affecting group portrait.

Publishers Weekly

Halberstam's gripping chronicle of a company of Manhattan firemen on September 11 is moving without ever becoming grossly sentimental an impressive achievement, though readers have come to expect as much from the veteran historian and journalist (author, most recently, of War in a Time of Peace). Engine 40, Ladder 35, a firehouse near Lincoln Center, sent 13 men to the World Trade Center, 12 of whom died. Through interviews with surviving colleagues and family members, Halberstam pieces together the day's events and offers portraits of the men who perished from rookie Mike D'Auria, a former chef who liked to read about Native American culture, to Captain Frank Callahan, greatly respected by the men for his dedication and exacting standards, even if he was rather distant and laconic (when someone performed badly at a fire he would call them into his office and simply give him "The Look," a long, excruciating stare: "Nothing needed to be said the offender was supposed to know exactly how he had transgressed, and he always did"). The book also reveals much about firehouse culture the staunch code of ethics, the good-natured teasing, the men's loyalty to each other in matters large and small (one widow recalls that when she and her husband were planning home renovations, his colleagues somehow found out and showed up unasked to help, finishing the job in record time). Though he doesn't go into much detail about the technical challenges facing the fire department that day, Halberstam does convey the sheer chaos at the site and, above all, the immensity of the loss for fellow firefighters. (May 29) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Nancy Zachary - KLIATT

In the developing bibliography of titles on 9/11, David Halberstam has crafted a poignant, journalistic tale about the experiences of Engine 40, Ladder 35, from the West Side of Manhattan. In a direct, concise style, the reader is intimately treated to the heart and soul of this unit, which lost 12 out of 13 firefighters. We meet the individuals, we understand their devotion to their work, and we contemplate the grave danger that they face each time their trucks race to a fire. The details of the morning of September 11th are familiar, but the personal stories humanize the trauma and loss. The aftermath of searching Ground Zero, the funeral services and the strength of the firefighters' families are a tribute to America. This slim, powerful volume should be required reading for incoming high school students. KLIATT Codes: JSA*; Exceptional book, recommended for junior and senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2002, Hyperion, 201p.,

Library Journal

The phrase "read it and weep" carries a flip connotation, but those who pick up this book will literally read it and weep. Pulitzer Prize winner Halberstam spent over two and a half months, beginning last October, at the Engine 40, Ladder 35 firehouse, located on Manhattan's West Side. On the morning of September 11 two rigs from that house had responded to the World Trade Center attack; 13 men went out, and one came back alive. Here, the author offers us short, personal looks at these men, with details provided by brother firefighters, spouses, family, and friends, and we see how 9/11 made its awful mark on the dozen who perished, those they left behind, and the one who survived. Ex-firefighter Dennis Smith's recent Report from Ground Zero paints a much broader and, owing to his background, more personal picture of the disaster, but if he captures its mind-boggling enormity Halberstam succeeds as well at emphasizing the individual grief it caused by focusing narrowly on just his 13 men. Recommended for all libraries. Jim Burns, Jacksonville P.L., FL Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Peeled emotional energy characterizes this portrait by Halberstam (War in a Time of Peace) of a firehouse that lost 12 of 13 men in the initial response to the World Trade Center attack. It's a difficult story to tell from almost every angle. The notoriously insular firefighting community doesn't accept strangers in its midst, let alone confide in an outsider, and most of the subjects are dead. Halberstam is striving to achieve sympathetic yet realistic characterizations of men he never met, most of whom were very young. So it's quite an achievement that the author manages to get into the soul of Engine 40, Ladder 35, to give a glimpse of what it meant for these men to be firefighters. He nails the pride and purposefulness with which firefighters view their work, and how that sense of mission and honor melded the house into a family-a word that is not a metaphor here, since more than once the author informs us that someone was "a fireman's son and a fireman's grandson," with brothers and cousins thrown into the act. The profession's unique requirements, norms, and traditions seem to have passed through the generations like some DNA-driven imperative to create firefighters' preternatural calm, their selflessness, and their simple, extraordinary willingness to troop straight into danger while others are streaming away from it. Although the firehouse is a raw, exposed environment ("everyone knows everything about everyone, and therefore nothing can be faked"), it's not easy to draw out these men to speak of their dead comrades. Understandably, some portraits are more rounded than others, but only a few are pastiches of impressions that fail to jell. More often, the descriptionsclick, Halberstam succeeds in bringing his subjects back to life, and we ache as we suddenly remember that this man is no more. Fine work that will leave most readers with even higher esteem for firefighters.

Interesting book: The Cold War or New Firefighters Cookbook

To Sleep with the Angels: The Story of a Fire

Author: David Cowan

The story of one of the deadliest fires in American history that took the lives of ninety-two children and three nuns at a Catholic elementary school in Chicago. An absorbing account...a tale of terror. --New York Times Book Review

Journal of American History -

A journalistic account of tragedy...haunting and honest.

Cleveland Plain Dealer

A harrowing depiction of carnage, hysteria, fear, faith, heroism, and heartbreak.

Publishers Weekly

On December 1, 1958, a fire at Our Lady of the Angels School in Chicago killed 92 pupils, most between the ages of nine and 12, and three nuns. This deeply affecting account of that tragedy by two Illinois journalists recreates the horror that destroyed a school and parish. The causes of the tragedy were manifold: outdated fire laws that permitted an edifice built before 1908 to escape a code passed in 1949 to insure safer schools; severe overcrowding; delay in reporting the fire; nuns ordering their pupils to pray rather than try to escape. Nor did municipal and archdiocesan officials help matters, their philosophy being that the fire was best forgotten; when a former student admitted to setting the blaze, they tried to conceal his confession. One positive result of the fire were the safety improvements made in 16,500 U.S. school buildings within a year. Photos not seen by PW. (Apr.)

Library Journal

Cowan, an independent journalist in the Chicago area, and Kuenster, a former reporter and columnist for the Chicago Daily News, fashion a gripping story from the events surrounding the tragic 1958 fire that swept through Chicago's Our Lady of the Angels elementary school. The fire, which left 92 elementary school children and three nuns dead, had profound effects on surviving students, parents, the surrounding neighborhood, and the city of Chicago. The tragedy spawned a nationwide school fire-safety program that is now often taken for granted. Cowan and Kuenster piece together a moving narrative based on the eyewitness accounts of surviving children, parents, firemen, doctors, nurses, and arson investigators. Although appropriate for any collection that serves general readers, this book is particularly recommended for Chicago-area libraries.-Robert J. Favini, Bentley Coll. Lib., Waltham, Mass.