Fascinating stories.

This book is a compilation of the three books Engine 24: Fire Stories written by retired New York City fire fighter Joe Corso, and dedicated to the members of Engine 24 of the New York City Fire Department.

If you are looking for action, suspense, dangerous situations, and want to feel as if you are actually walking into those blazing buildings with the fire snaking around you, then these are the stories for you, written from notes taken after fires fought by the author and his comrades.

They also provide a very interesting history of New York, over the years. Not only the famous fires but also the race riots, secret places, and the horses role in the fire service. For me personally, however, these stories are compelling reading because they are personal, one man’s recollections of his life in the fire fighting service, snapshots in time, one offs, which can never be repeated ever again...

In one of the stories, he tells, is of his first day as a fire fighter. As you sit, reading his description of that day, written from the heart, so many years later, you feel as if you are there, a silent witness, watching the young Joe as he meets his fellow workers for the first time and they take him under their wing. These are the men who taught him, brave, dedicated, and loyal, and these same qualities they installed in him, and he has striven to emulate, throughout his career.

Reading these stories it is easy to understand the close bonds, which these brave men have with their comrades. When they are facing such unpredictable danger, it is imperative they can trust them, literally with their lives, and that trust must be earned. As a result, they become a close family, and the care they have for each other reaches far beyond the Fire Station walls.

I have loved reading these stories, for me, they have everything, action, suspense, history but above all, human interest. I wish he would write more... ( )