The 12 Steps of Firefighting.
1. We admitted we were powerless over fire and that fire was unmanageable:
How can something so terrifying be so attractive? I’m not talking marriage, I mean firefighting. You have all heard the expression “We run into burning buildings while everyone else is running away.”
We really would run, but from the start of a firefighting career to the conclusion, it is beat in to us not to run. It’s so hard. We want to get in there so bad and go to work, and that is the essence of our addiction to fire.
We are powerless over fire, just like huge moths dressed in hundreds of dollars of protective gear we are pulled into the flames. I don’t believe a normal person can see fire the way we do. We live for that call. If I could have gone down to a street corner in the middle of the night with a hundred bucks in my pocket and bought a two or three alarm fire and taken it home and used it, I would have been homeless in a few weeks.
I would have pawned shit for it. The progression or tolerance I would have built up for fire would surely rival crack, heroin, and alcohol.
I can see myself, haggard, unshaven, shaking in the cold and dark. Stumbling down the back ally in the worst part of town seeking a fix.
Me. “Hey what do you got?”
Fire Dealer. “I got some good stuff man. I got a three alarm warehouse fire. I got a, apartment fire, on a winter night.”
He checks the inside of his coat while I pace and rub my rough face with a cold hand.
“You know I don’t like it cold man.”
“Okay, just asking. Let’s see what else I got. You look like you hurting man.”
“Just tell me what you got man; I got a hundred to spend.”
He steps back a bit. “A hundred? That ain’t gonna get much.” He reaches in his pants pocket. “How about a garage fire?”
“Come on man, don’t do me like that. I’m a fireman, I’m a pro, a garage fire ain’t shit man. I can’t get a buzz on that. I’ll give you my badge how about that?”
“Your damn badge? What am I gonna do with a badge? Get a free burger and fries? I don’t want your tin man. What else you got?”
Frantic I dig through my pockets. Then I feel it. My Saint Florian medal, my children gave it to me to keep me safe in fires.
“How about this? It’s pure silver. Feel it man it’s like three ounces or more.”
He takes it from me as I look around the alleyway. He bounces it up and down in his palm, then flips it over and reads the inscription. “You will always come home to us Daddy with this. Love your children. That’s kinda sick man; you wanna give this up for some fire?”
“Well? Is it worth something or not?”
He shakes his head. “Man you’re supposed be some kind of hero, how can you do this?”
“You gonna judge me now? You don’t know what this is like man. You’ve never been in there with the beast; you don’t know what its roar sounds like, what its claws feel like on your neck. You never found a child and carried them away from the beast to safety. I need it.”
He stares blankly at me and then reaches in his coat and pulls out a bag.
“Here you go man; it’s an all hands fire. Enjoy.” He turns and strolls away bouncing the medal in his hand.
Some part of me knows I would have done it if I could have. I became a fireman by accident. I don’t remember having any particular fascination with fire suppression as a child. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t have a fascination with fire.
3 comments:
Adrenaline rush! What a great analogy the addictive nature is for this. It allows me to look at how it feels to you, and find something that I can relate it to.
My fascination with fire stops at the nice warmth of a campfire, wood stove, or candle. To imagine the courage it takes to enter a building that is roaring with flames over your head... nope, it would scare the bejeebers out of me! To take that a level further and imagine it as something I HAD to have... HAD to do, is only possible through the eyes of another who feels that way. You express that feeling well!
Thank you, remember I am an addict.
Nodding a drill (all pun intended) I am completely familiar with... just not with fire!
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