America"s first responders answer the call nearly two million times each year as the nation"s first line of defense in any emergency. Firefighters captures the spirit of the firefighting community in a riveting collection of 500 contemporary and vintage photographs. Written by experts, historians, fire chiefs, and officers, the book features first-hand accounts of courage in the face of danger; essays on urban and wildland firefighting; a look at training, trucks, and apparatus; and an overview of the history of U.S. fire departments, beginning with Ben Franklin’s Union Fire Company in Philadelphia in 1736. Also included is information on volunteering, search and rescue, emergency medical services, and response to terrorism. Firefighters enables the history of America"s bravest profession to be cherished permanently in a handsome package that all firefighters will be proud to own and display. This book will be read again and again by past and present firefighters, their families and friends, and by everyone interested in stories of bravery. It is being published in this magnificent collector"s edition in conjunction with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.