In my opinion there could have been more reports on different jobs; the story focused a lot on his emotional situation during the years and he also mentioned and described the time when he joined the Police to bridge over the time before he could join the fire brigade. And I was like "Okay... I thought this book is about a firefighter?". Okay, it's part of his life, but I'm really not that interested in this part. So, please, more firefighting! Running through the book is a series of gripping historical narratives subtitled ‘Yesteryear’s Fires’, depicting the heroic professionalism of firefighters confronted by truly harrowing disasters. Some of these remain all-too-familiar, such as the King’s Cross fire of 1987 which claimed the lives of 31 people; others, no less terrible, have faded into distant memory. The book ends with a fresh and compelling description of a horrifying tragedy that no one can have forgotten: 2017’s Grenfell Tower fire.

This was a fantastic insight into the fire brigade. A good mixture of anecdote and education - although I did find that during some of the more technical aspects (particularly discussing risk assessments etc) I began to glaze over a bit. There was also a great variety of experiences to show just how varied a fireman’s job is; body recovery, dealing with chemical spills, and working with paramedics during road traffic accidents are just a few examples of jobs that don’t even involve dealing with fire.Early in her firefighting career, Sabrina Cohen-Hatton was on a shift, rushing towards an emergency call. A crew member had been badly injured. Her partner, Mike, was a member of the four-man team. Was he hurt? Was he alive? For the next four minutes and 37 seconds she tried to retain her composure. At the scene, she found that the injured firefighter wasn’t Mike (now her husband). The wave of relief that washed over her was followed immediately by another – of guilt, having felt relief at another colleague’s ill fortune. That second wave changed the course of her life. Her father’s death heralded a turbulent teenage experience and the extraordinary story of those years and her subsequent rise through the ranks has been optioned by the television production company that made Broadchurch. Stephen Dudeney (born July 1968) is a retired British firefighter. He was a senior officer in the London Fire Brigade. Early life

The book ends a year after Grenfell when Kennedy-Macfoy decided to quit his career as a firefighter. Cohen-Hatton has overcome substantial adversity to reach a position of seniority in the fire service, and The Heat of the Moment is also a memoir. Her father died when she was nine – the same age as her own daughter, Gabriella, is now. As a teenager in Newport, south-east Wales, Cohen-Hatton was homeless for about two years, an experience she hid for a long time. “I became afraid of anyone ever knowing about it,” she says.

Career

I’ve seen there are some criticism around how the author describes Grenfell and his experiences of it, I can understand their concern regarding the timing of the book, however, I think the way he describes his feelings and what he has seen is true to him. He talks about arriving and seeing other people lay on the floor resting after they have been inside the building, at no point does he put down anyone else’s effort. Edric tells one side, his side, of the story. In time there may well be many others and each one will be unique. Aynway, I wished for more stories of his life as a firefighter - I mean, certainly there have been many other interesting jobs he had to do during his watches but he doesn't tell us! It’s not a job just for men and it’s not a job just for women. The important thing is that women know that they have the option of joining, if that is something they would like to do.