3000 Degrees: The True Story of a Deadly Fire and the Men Who Fought It

On December 3, 1999, the call crackled in to the men of the Worchester, Massachusetts Fire Department: a three-alarm warehouse blaze in a six-story windowless colossus of brick and mortar. Firefighters love the excitement of a "triple." But this was a different beast. Rollovers, flashovers, backdrafts, this one had it all. Once inside, they found themselves trapped in a snarling furnace of blazing orange heat as hot as a crematorium, with smoke so black and predatory they had to feel for their partners next to them. Swallowed deep in the building, with no way out, they struggled to survive an ill-fated ordeal that would push them to the very limits of loyalty and courage.

What happened next - and how their lives and community were changed forever - offers an unprecedented look at these heroic men whose job it is to rush into burning buildings when everyone else just wants out.

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During the long night of December 3, 1999, a windowless, century-old storage building in downtown Worchester, Mass., was turned into a six-story stove. In gripping prose ("The smoke banked down like bolts of black velvet, heavy sheets curling and rolling and folding together") , Flynn describes how, once ignited, the deserted Worchester Cold Storage building must have been the perfect structure for a perfect fire. In a style similar to Sebastian Junger's, Flynn's chapters hustle from disastrous city fires that occurred earlier that summer, building tension and setting the scene for the final disaster in this tottering working-class New England town. With confident, deft description, Flynn brings to life this 3,000-degree catastrophe with a crackling intensity, which, unfortunately, he never quite achieves for the people within his story. The human element doesn't quite live up to what he presented in his first award-winning Esquire magazine piece that won notice for the survivors as well as the spouses and parents of the six firemen who were killed. Likewise, Flynn minimizes the subsequent police investigation and forensics that made national headlines for weeks after the fire. Nonetheless, the same work ethos that made New York City firemen and rescue companies run into the doomed World Trade Center towers is here in a smaller dimension but equally intense story of fire-fighting tragedy. Photos, blueprints and map not seen by PW. FROM LIBRARY JOURNAL
Narrated by Richard Rohan, 3000 Degrees is the compelling and true story of a four-alarm fire that took the lives of six dedicated and fearless firemen in Worcester, MA, on December 3, 1999. Flynn introduces many of the firemen and their families over several months leading up to the deadly blaze. What they all have in common is their compulsion to be firemen that obliterates the possibility of any other occupation. The danger, long shifts, and their wives and children form a backdrop against the brotherhood of firefighters. Surprising to anyone other than a fireman is the thrill, excitement, and downright yearning they have for a "triple" a three-alarm fire, dangerous and potentially life-threatening. The December 3 fire started out like most, as a single alarm call to the Worcester Cold Storage building, a 100-year-old abandoned, windowless warehouse. The tragedy of the firemen's deaths struck a chord across America that generated enough money to replace faulty radios and buy three thermal imagers, equipment that might have helped locate those disoriented men through the smoke. Recommended for all public library audio collections. Gloria Maxwell, Penn Valley Community Coll., Kansas City, MO
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. REVIEW
[Among] books appearing this year about fires and firefighting...the best of the lot is Sean Flynn's "3000 Degrees." -- Newsweek, May 27, 2002

"A masterwork of reportage...in the tradition of 'The Perfect Storm'...an un-putdownable narrative." -- Men's Journal, May 2002

"A remarkable book." -- Esquire, May 2002 Esquire, May 2002

"Incendiary suspense.... Based on fact but written with the emotion of a novel." -- The Austin American-Statesman (May 26, 2002)

"Roaring pace and raw emotion...poignantly portrays the culture of firefighters, juxtaposing their understated heroism with their family-centered personal lives." -- The Boston Herald, April 9, 2002

"Reads like a dream--albeit a fiery, deadly nightmare." -- Boston Magazine, April 2002 FROM THE PUBLISHER
2003 Audie Award Nominee ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SEAN FLYNN writes regularly for Esquire and other magazines. His Esquire article "The Perfect Fire" won the National Magazine Award and was one of the most talked-about works of nonfiction of the year. He is the author of Boston D.A., an account of life inside a big-city district attorney's office. FROM AUDIOFILE
On the evening of December 3, 1999, a true-life drama began when Worcester, Massachusetts, firefighters were called to a blaze in an abandoned warehouse. Two firemen who had been searching for homeless people inside the building called: "Mayday, Mayday. . . We're running out of air." Four others went in to find them, also to be trapped inside. All six would be found dead the next day. Christopher Walker captures that tragic day with a dramatic ending that focuses on the emotions of the people involved--the firefighters and their families waiting for word at home. He gives human perspective to this multifaceted view of one of the worst tragedies in firefighting history. J.A.S. 2003 Audie Award Finalist AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright AudioFile, Portland, Maine Read more