Aftermath, A Firefighter's Life
ON THE BOOK SHELF
By John M. Malecky September, 2023
Aftermath, A Firefighter’s Life
By Bryan Ratushniak
Available from:
FSP Books & Videos
433 Main Street, Suite 2A
Hudson, MA 01749
1-800-522-8528
E-mail: support@fire-police-ems.com
www.fire-police-ems.com
Price: $24.95
This book is soft cover, measuring 5 ½ inches by 8 ½ inches, with 250 pages. Through the years of writing this column I have reviewed many memoirs written by those who have made it through their careers and lived to retire. Almost all of them were in the fire service. With that being said, it never ceases to amaze me how each memoir is a story in itself. This book is no different, in fact it is a life of horror in more ways than one. It is about a retired captain from the Toronto, Ontario Fire Department. I had been to Toronto twice. The last time was when this author was 14 years of age. What I observed and learned about the city is nothing compared to the way it is today. Being a large city, it suffers from the problems of all the other cities with fires, emergency situations and medical calls that leave nothing to the imagination. The buildup of responding to these tragedies takes its toll on many a firefighter’s sanity. The author is no different. He takes us through 54 chapters, some of which bring us through his childhood and how he became interested in becoming a firefighter. It takes us through his family life and how the job affected it. It takes us to the point that he had thoughts about who he was and if life was worth it all. It’s a book that should be read so that we may empathize with emergency workers and what they face and must endure to perform their jobs. One thing I read and knew about is using coffee to eliminate the smell of death or anything undesirable for that matter. I suggested it to a friend one time who fell asleep while boiling nipples from a baby bottle and woke up to a smoky apartment. The baby was fine, but the apartment smell and smoke needed to be dealt with. The method worked well! You will come across the use of coffee in the book. I am happy the author is enjoying his retirement! I encourage everyone to read it.
No information from the author.
