By FireRescue1 staff
Whether you’re seeking inspiration, looking to sharpen your leadership skills or aiming to expand your operational expertise, reading is a powerful tool for professional growth in the fire service.
We’ve gathered book recommendations from fire service leaders and FireRescue1 contributors, as well as book excerpts showcasing reads that cater to firefighters, aspiring firefighters and fire service leaders. These picks cover leadership, operational tactics, personal development, and even children’s books to inspire the next generation.
Pick up one of these highly-rated reads as a gift for a firefighter in your life and let these titles motivate you to learn, grow, and lead in the ever-evolving world of firefighting and emergency response.
Dive into a good book
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Top book picks from fire leaders
Recommended books for entertainment or professional development
Daily reading will make you a better provider, stronger leader and a more gracious colleague
Check out this list of books to help launch your station’s leadership library so all members can access great content any time
Books about the catastrophic 9/11 attacks and the long return to normalcy are crucial to the historical record of those we lost and how we moved forward
Dive into a curated collection of must-read public safety books, from thrilling accounts and leadership lessons from the front lines, to read-aloud children’s favorites
Find your inner-chef with these recipes written, compiled and taste-tested by fellow first responders
Firefighter Book Excerpts
Chief Bill Killen – surviving member of the original Apollo rescue team and former IAFC president – details the history of these unique teams
Robert Ulrich’s book shares tips, tricks and stories from a life of service
Retired Captain Cindie Schooner-Ball offers readers a woman’s perspective on working in this male-dominated profession
A trailblazing memoir from Clare Frank, California’s first (and only) female chief of fire protection
Lt. Kiel Samsing addresses the balance that firefighters must strike between quick, intuitive thinking and slower, deliberate reasoning
Clark A. Kendall and Carol L. Petrov offer finance-focused guidance, including tips for savings and pension plans, to firefighters and other first responders
Chapter 4 of this comprehensive desk reference about EMS in the U.S. untangles the origin and history of the EMS Star of Life
FDNY Deputy Assistant Chief Frank Leeb details the response to American Airlines Flight 587, which crashed in Queens just 2 months after 9/11
What happens when the sights, sounds and smells from tragedy become too much to bear
Quick click: Shop the firefighter book recommendations
Leadership/career development picks
- “Awakening the Sleeping Giant: The Political Empowerment of America’s Heroes” by Congressman Curt Weldon
- “Cornerstones of Leadership: On and Off the Fireground” by Frank Leeb
- “Eat That Frog” by Brian Tracy
- “Essentials of Fire Department Customer Service” by Alan V. Brunacini
- “Essentials of Firefighting and Fire Department Operations” by IFSTA
- “Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win” by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
- “Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time” by Susan Scott
- “Fire Command” by Alan V. Brunacini
- “First In, Last Out: Leadership Lessons from the New York Fire Department” by John Salka
- “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance” by Angela Duckworth
- “Hal Moore on Leadership: Winning when Outgunned and Outmanned” by Harold G. Moore
- “In Extremis Leadership: Leading As If Your Life Depended On It” by Thomas Kolditz
- “In Honor of the Charleston 9: A Study of Change Following Tragedy” by David Griffins
- “It’s Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy” by Captain D. Michael Abrashoff
- “Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change” by William Bridges
- “Pass It On: What We Know … What We Want You to Know” by Billy Goldfeder
(And don’t miss “Pass It On: The Second Alarm” and “Pass It On 3: Making Good Progress.”) - “Pride & Ownership: A Firefighter’s Love of the Job” by Rick Lasky
- “Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World” by David Epstein
- “Smoke Your Firefighter Interview” by Paul S. Lepore
- “Sources of Power” by Gary Klein
- “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable” by Patrick Lencioni
- “The Hero Code: Lessons Learned from Lives Well Lived” by Admiral William McRaven
- “The Rural Firefighting Handbook” by Dominic Coletti and Larry Davis
- “The Wisdom of the Bullfrog: Leadership Made Simple (But Not Easy)” by William H. McRaven
- “Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams” by Matthew Walker
Firefighter memoirs
- “3000 Degrees: The True Story of a Deadly Fire and the Men Who Fought It” By Sean Flynn
- “A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic’s Wild Ride to the Edge and Back” by Kevin Hazzard
- “Crucible of Fire: Nineteenth-Century Urban Fires and the Making of the Modern Fire Service” by Bruce Hensler
- “D.C. Fire” by Dennis Rubin
- “Killing Season: A Paramedic’s Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Opioid Epidemic” by Peter Canning
- “On the Line: Women Firefighters Tell Their Stories” by Linda Willing
- “Paramedic: On the Front Lines of Medicine” by Peter Canning
- “Report from Engine Co. 82” by Dennis Smith
- “Report from Engine Co. 82” by Dennis Smith
- “Rescue Men” by Charles Kenney
- “Smokejumper: A Memoir by One of America’s Most Select Airborne Firefighters” By Jason A. Ramos
- “Thirty Years on The Line” by Leo D. Stapleton
- “Young Men and Fire” by Norman Maclean
FireRescue1 is using generative AI to create some content that is edited and fact-checked by our editors.
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