To Sleep With The Angels by David Cowan and John Kuenster

Most books that tell the story of a famous fire aren't written for firefighters; they're written for the public. So, for me, there always seems to be a little bit of romanticizing and hero worship (which I don't respond well to.) This book very effectively avoids that in its telling of the horrific fire at the Our Lady of Angels School which resulted in the deaths of 92 students and 3 nuns. The telling really hit me hard on a couple of different levels; firefighter, parent, etc. The then head of the NFPA famously said, "There are no new lessons to be learned from this fire; only old lessons that tragically went unheeded."

Recommended for all ranks (because as members of the fire profession, we should have a knowledge of our history.)