Firefighters! (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781518616921)

Karl Detzer, in his own words: "FRIENDS of mine have told me that there is little of adventure left in the great cities. Which proves that they never rode the fire department. I have. Up on the roofs and in deep sub cellars I have worn the helmet and lugged hose, merely for the extra thump or two my heart gave me in return. And, on the long night dog-watches, you hear tales of adventure and humor and tragedy from the sleepy fireman waiting by the alarm stand. "'A Pinch of Powder' is one of those stories, pieced together from several yarns, told by yawning men on watch. And no adventure in the cities? Go down to the corner engine house some night; stick around, and after a time they'll ask you to ride out with them on an alarm. Sway on a high ladder, or eat smoke in a cellar, with your helmet pulled down tight-ah! Talk about the sport of kings "I have courted adventure in several far places, and never found her quite so delightful as she is when she smiles on the fire department. I have paddled North toward Hudson's Bay on the far Abitibi, and have known the joy of a bandit skirmish on the Rio Grande. I have looked across the Rockies at the Tetons and have slipped through an underground passage between Mott and Pell Streets, in New York's Chinatown, with the city narcotic squad. I was a captain in the army during the war, and after it, for a year, headed one of the branches of the American secret police in Europe. But adventure? "Give me the fire department." - Karl Detzer, 1926