Most people think of firefighters as heroes, and indeed they are. These brave men and women risk their lives in the very act of going to work every day. Each call answered has the potential for danger to the firefighters and the citizens they serve. There are many moments, however, that define a firefighter's experience. Not all of them are fraught with danger. Fortunately, many of these calls don't end in injuries or death. Firefighters, like all working people, have widely varying on-the-job experiences. Emotions run the gamut: excitement, fear, boredom, sadness, hilarity, and poignancy. The new memoir Seventeen Stories from the Frederick County Fire Service humanizes the work and personal lives of these local heroes.
Author Marshall A. Botkin, PhD, has spent thirty-two years volunteering and working as a paid adjunct firefighter for Frederick County's fire and emergency medical services. He not only has placed himself in the line of fire hundreds of times but also has had the chance to get to know the colorful people of Frederick County, Maryland, a community of sprawling farmland and suburban commuters in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Through Botkin's touching, insightful, and funny memories, readers will explore the personal side of fire and rescue services.
About the Author: Marshall A. Botkin, PhD, is a college professor in Frederick County, Maryland, an expansive community in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Botkin joined the Frederick County Fire Department in 1982 and climbed the ranks from lieutenant to rescue chief. He's trained in fire suppression, rescue techniques, and emergency medicine, and has put all three to use over his thirty-two year fire-and-rescue career.
Botkin has a doctorate in social sciences and is a published author. With the release of his new memoir, Seventeen Stories from the Frederick County Fire Service, he hopes to portray the realities of firefighting life from a human everyday perspective and beyond the media's popular stereotype of the stoic, heroic first responder. Botkin's insightful, amusing delivery humanizes men and women who always answer the call of duty, whether it's a five-alarm fire, a cat in a tree, a life-threatening heart attack, or a faulty school fire alarm.
