An Interesting Book

Here is an article on a new book that is out. Written by a FF in Canada. Check it out. You can order it thru the email in the article. I will be picking up my copy soon.

Ex-firefighter's words red hot

Retired fire captain Jimmy Allen's poignant book provides an inside look at what makes firefighters do their job, writes Earl McRae

Jimmy Allen is in the Merivale Mall being Jimmy Allen. Which is to say he's defending his world record for most topics covered by a human being in 10 seconds of rapid-fire monologue, and a stooped little old lady stops at the kiosk to look at the creative crafts Jimmy's selling for his wife, Sharon, who made them.
"Hello, DARLIN'. You look LOVELY. What are you, 20, 25? If I wasn't workin', we'd go DANCIN'. Don't be scared, I'm HARMLESS. My dear wife Sharon is the LOVE of my life. Can I interest you in my BOOK? My LIFE story. That's ME on the cover. Your HAIRSTYLE. It's PERFECT. It SUITS you."
She buys a piece of jewelry, she buys his book, he gives her a bear hug, she beams, and Jimmy Allen bolts to the front of the kiosk to adjust the display of his book, This Firefighter's Life, that he says is the only autobiography by a firefighter in North America.
If it's not, it's surely the best: A rollicking, roisterous, raw, rough, tender, profane, poignant, romp through Jimmy's 65 years of life with rounders, bounders, saints, sinners, 39 of those years as one tough sunuvabitch firefighter's firefighter in Ottawa before he retired as a captain -- all told in his inimitable style, no-holds barred, no sacred cows, and you come away from his book understanding like never before firefighters, their job, the special people they are.
From his book: "I can't write like Mickey Spillane, J.D. Salinger or John Steinbeck, but neither could they possibly invent the pathos and comedy of a firefighter's life. They didn't walk the walk or climb the ladders."
Nor could those guys write like Jimmy Allen, and he gives major credit to his buddy, Sun columnist Pat MacAdam. Jimmy, as a personal journal, had been scribbling his firefighting memories in longhand, to be typed out by Sharon, and one day he showed some of his stuff to MacAdam.
"Pat told me it was visceral, and that I should write a book. I asked him what visceral meant? I told him I don't know how to write. He said just write it in my firefighter's voice. The story that really got to Pat was the one on the little boy on the freezing winter night."
BOY WAS DEAD
From his book: "There was a little boy on the stairwell. His eyes were open, and he seemed to be looking straight at me. I took off my fire coat, wrapped him in it, and started to cry. I carried the little boy outside, and sat under a tree with him, not even feeling the cold.
"Warner Bradley came over to talk to me. He said: 'Jimmy, you know he's dead, eh?'
"'Yes, I know,' I answered. 'I couldn't get to him in time.' Warner said, 'It's not your fault.' The coroner, Dr. Tom Kendall, arrived. I surrendered the child to him. He had just been on the scene at another fatality. A 74-year-old man had put a double-barrelled shotgun in his mouth. Tom Kendall cried, too. We went back to the station and I washed away the chunks of burned skin that had stuck to the inside of my fire coat. I hung it in the tower to dry. Life is so precious, yet so fragile."
PUBLISHED IT HIMSELF
Jimmy Allen sent his manuscript to several top publishing houses and ran into The Canadian Curse. "They said it was interesting, but passed on it. One wanted me to take out the swear words, which I wouldn't, and another said it was 'too active,' whatever the hell that meant."
So, Jimmy paid to have it published himself. And a handsome $19.95 book it is; the photo on its red glossy cover of Jimmy kneeling in prayer over the body of a 72-year-old woman he'd covered in a tarpaulin after her car was struck by a train at a level crossing.
The morgue attendants wanted to drop the woman's body over a fence nearer to their vehicle. Referring to them as "flunkies," Jimmy writes: "I called them every name in the book and told them to handle her remains with dignity. I had two of my men carry her down the track to the body-removal truck. I was afraid I might strangle the two insensitive jerks."
Jimmy Allen's book is in the stores, but if you can't find it, ask the store to get it. Or you can buy it by e-mailing Jimmy: psallen1@rogers.com and he'll autograph it for you.
"YOU, sir. Lookin' for something for the LADY of your life? You've come to the RIGHT place. I LIKE your beard. Looks SMART. Those are earrings, she'll LOVE 'em. You're no DUMMY, it'll be a HOT time in the ol' bed tonight."
He buys the earrings. And Jimmy's book.