FIRE: Mutual Aid by Joe Corso

Exciting fire fighting true story.

Publisher: Black Horse Publishing; 1 edition (July 26, 2013)

ASIN: B00E6HRNK8

About Joe Corso: I was born in 1935 and I grew up in Queens, New York. I started writing at the age of 75 hoping to raise money to send my grandchildren to better schools. In the past three years I've written 12 books and 6 short stories. Right now I'm working on The Starlight Club 5. After that I'm considering writing a sequel to the Lone Jack Kid which is a finalist in the 2013 Readers Favorite book contest. The Starlight Club won the silver in the 2012 eLit TRUE CRIME category, and is a finalist in the Readers Favorite 2013 book contest. My short story FIRE: Box 598 is also a finalist in the Readers Favorite short story category.
Go figure. If I would have known I could write a good story, I would have started my writing career a half century ago.

About the book: (The story that follows was written from notes I wrote on May 28, 1964, the day after the Jersey City Pier fire. The following paragraph is from an article that appeared in the third issue of W.N.Y.F in 1964, written by John J. Cunningham Deputy Assistant Chief of the Marine Division. He described the scene perfectly.)

Author's Website: http://www.corsobooks.com/

Review by Susan Keefe

On the night of May 27, 1964, thousands of New York City residents, whose dwellings overlook the Hudson River in lower Manhattan, had ringside seats for a spectacular wind-fanned waterfront fire that lit up the Jersey shore. A fire that, before it was brought under control some hours later, taxed the combined efforts of four FDNY. marine companies, five FDNY. Engine companies, 16 JCFD fire companies, 14 Coast Guard Vessels, and 21 Pennsylvania R.R. tug boats. Units from nearby Bayonne, Hoboken, and West New York manned the vacant Jersey City firehouses. Residents as far away as Brooklyn discovered evidence of the fire on their sidewalks and lawns the following morning.

Some fires make news headlines, and the Jersey City Pier fire on 27th May 1964 was such a fire.

The author, Joe Corso was one of the fire fighting crew on Engine 24 when they responded to a call from the dispatcher - the Jersey City Fire Department was asking for Mutual Aid, they had a fire raging and needed help.

Gathering at the Holland Tunnel, they led a caravan of fire trucks towards the brightly lit skyline and into the inferno, which raged in the tall buildings at the waterfront and along the pier, threatening to spread down the coast.

United, with one goal, the fire crews worked in the extreme heat, using water from the Hudson River, fighting to halt the spread of the fire, grateful when the mighty fireboats arrive to take over.

This story is a fine example of the fire departments comradeship and mutual respect, brave men who pulled together to extinguish this raging inferno.

The author has also included in this book some interesting insights as to what it was like living there in the early 1960’s and some local information.

Available from Amazon on Kindle here http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E6HRNK8/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d0_...