 Born 1953, in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, a historic industrial city located in the valley of the Monongahela River near Pittsburgh. His interest in firefighting started early watching the city’s firemen battling blazes in old buildings in the downtown and by the many volunteer fire departments that surrounded McKeesport. Entering the Navy in 1971, he trained as a corpsman in emergency medical services.
Joining the volunteer fire service in 1976, he also studied fire protection science. While in college, he boarded fulltime in a suburban Pittsburgh volunteer fire department protecting high-value commercial and retail properties gaining practical experience in firefighting and rescue work. After earning a fire science degree, he worked for a short time in a McKeesport steel mill then passed the exam for the city fire department.
Moving to Maine in the late 80s, he worked in several fire departments holding positions as assistant fire chief and fire chief, as well as earning a graduate degree. He went on to work in the state’s fire service training program teaching and developing courses for firefighters. He retired as deputy director of operations in 2007. He has responded to fires and emergencies for more than 35 years. His interest in the fire service and its history encompasses the human and geographic aspects of responding to emergencies and disasters, especially the interdependent relationships between culture, location, and technology.
His first book is Crucible of Fire: Nineteenth Century Urban Fires and the Making of the Modern Fire Service (Potomac Books, 2011). He is currently working on a second book about volunteer firefighters in the late twentieth-century. You can read more about his books and fire service experiences at http://brucehensler.typepad.com/.
|
