A View From the Backstep Part 1:: The Harlem Shuffle

This book ISN'T about me. Instead, it’s a chronicle of an earlier era in the FDNY, an era when the protection of civilian life and property came first, and firefighter safety maybe third, or fourth. This is a tribute to those who worked during that era, specifically in Harlem and the South Bronx of that time. The areas I knew and worked in.

These are accounts from an era that is gone for good now, and soon the age of human firefighters will almost certainly come to an end as well, as AI/Robotics, like the 1,100 pound robot Colossus which put out the fire in the Notre Dame Cathedral in 2019, ultimately replace humans in this job. While it's unlikely human fire personnel will be eliminated, it's very likely that the Fire Service jobs will change with that technology to the point where the Fire Service of the relatively near future will be unrecognizable to those who've worked in the era of human firefighters.

These are accounts of those very memorable times and of those “ordinary guys” who routinely did extraordinary things.