Busy as Hell

Busy As Hell is a funny, serious, and instructive look at the wild experiences shared by hundreds of Boston firefighters who battled their way through the busiest years in BFD’s history - a period known affectionately as “The War Years.” This was long before bunker gear .... no masks, just dungaree jackets, work shoes, and (maybe) gloves. The era of iron men and wooden aerial ladders! What was it like being a Boston fireman back then? For instance, what was it like to watch the captain wrestle on the ground with one of his men while the building was burning down? Who comforts a suicidal man by telling him exactly where to land when he jumps so the firemen don’t have to go far to pick up his body? What happens when a very talented prankster gets a taste of his own medicine? What famous and old-time horror movie personality lived in the attic of one of Boston’s historic fire houses? Find out who opens a roof from inside an unvented attic? How many ladder trucks does it take to rescue 125 souls from a blistering inferno in the dead of the night? And what was it like to work with a fireman who lit buildings on fire - in his spare time and even when he was working? Boston’s happy band of swashbuckling firemen climbed aboard the old fire engines and raced through neighborhoods filled with wooden three-deckers, aging brick buildings, on narrow streets and little back alleys (the famous “paved-over cow paths”) and put out a staggering number of major fires - one every 13.6 hours, for twenty-one years straight! Busy As Hell indeed!