Fire & Resilience

Somewhere around 2020, my life took an odd turn. We had moved to a rural enclave on the northern fringe of the Catskills in upstate New York. Everywhere I went, I saw firehouses with signs out front fairly begging for volunteers to fight fires and run ambulance calls. I soon realized that this was a genuine crisis unfolding across America. I decided to write a story about it and in the process, it hit me: why not me? For starters, I was well into my 60s. But so, it seemed, were many -- if not most -- of the people answering the alarms. Thence began a journey that has become a kind of personal crusade to promote civic engagement and volunteerism. It's also been some of the most fun and rewarding work that I've done.