WRITTEN BY ONE OF AFCA’S OWN: Ian McLaren has been a volunteer firefighter for over 21 years, and has served on several different rural departments. In his other life, Ian is an elementary school principal in a small town in Central Alberta. He currently resides in Bentley, AB where he is the Chief of the Bentley District Fire Department.
There are a few great books about firefighting, with stories about fires far bigger, rescues more daring, and close calls more hair-raising than any most volunteers would be able to truthfully relate. Some of these have become international best sellers. Not My Emergency is a ‘country cousin’ of these in a sense.
In this book Chief McLaren tells a few pretty good fire stories of his own, but he also hopes this book will relate something quite distinctive from these other works. The differences lie in the fact that, unlike volunteers, career firefighters do their jobs and then they go home for a break, away from their workplaces, just like doctors, plumbers and members of every other profession. Many full timers have more training, newer equipment or specialized skill sets and assignments. However, their jobs are their jobs. They have work hours and off duty hours. If a call comes into their station when they are off duty, someone else takes care of it. A volunteer firefighter’s experience is something very different, and that is the real story shared in this memoir.
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