Since the first horse-drawn fire engines clanged down a city street, fire fighting has been an urban service occupation that has continued to generate a feeling of romance and respect. Yet beyond the excitement and pride felt by those who advance the hose lines, make the rescues or throw the ladders, there are a variety of techniques, customs, gestures and stories that form the work culture passed from one generation of fire fighters to the next. The veteran's advice, for example, given over a hot cup of coffee after a rookie has just run the line on his first working fire, shapes the way a new firefighter will think, act, and feel on the job. Washington, D. C., has a long and rich history of fire service, and within every neighborhood of the city there is a fire house in which these stories and skills are being passed on to the fire fighters of the next generation.

Stories fire fighters tell about past experiences express not only the way things have been done in the past, but also the humor, intelligence and flair of those who tell the stories or are described in them.