"The men in Charles Kenney's family have been drawn to firefighting since his grandfather Charles "Pops" Kenney joined the Boston Fire Department in 1932. In his working class, Irish-Catholic neighborhood, there were other jobs that offered a decent wage, but none had the sense of belonging that comes with being a fire-fighter, or the purity of purpose that comes with saving lives. Pops responded to the catastrophic Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire in 1942, where he saved a number of lives as he pulled victim after victim from the blocked doors of the building; the author's father, "Sonny," was a submariner in the North Pacific during World War II, then served with distinction in the Boston Fire Department until a fireball blew him from a third-story window and sent him hurtling to the pavement below; and two of the author's brothers were "sparks" as kids, amateur firefighters, whose career goals were thwarted by a court order integrating the Boston Fire Department and changing the rules for employment. One became a cop, the other a firefighter-paramedic on Cape Cod and a rescue man with an elite squad that was sent to Ground Zero in the aftermath of the collapse of the World Trade Center." "From the Cocoanut Grove disaster to Ground Zero, Rescue Men details the authentic experiences of a firefighting family with insight, clarity, and unflinching honesty. Rescue Men reveals what it is really like to be a fireman and the toll it takes on both the men and their families."--BOOK JACKET.