• A typical big city fire fighter work day is 24 hours long.
• In most firehouse around the country, the local government pays for the structure and apparatus, but in the kitchen, the firefighters themselves have to supply pots, pans, and all the utensils.
• The average big city firefighter can burn as much as 3600 calories in a day.
• Wild-land firefighters need to be constantly prepared to be deployed, at a moments notice, to a forest fire for up to 18 days.
• Firefighters do not rescue kittens from trees. They might reconsider it if there were ever to be a report of a cat skeleton in a tree.

Vincent Dunn, Deputy Fire Chief, FDNY (Ret.) has written two informative papers that are an insight into the dangers of being a firefighter. We have republished them here with the permission of the author.

• 50 Ways Firefighters Live
• 50 Causes of Firefighter Death and Injury