The America Burning Audiobook Project
(Also available on your favorite podcast app as Combustible episodes 42-62)
If you’ve been a firefighter for long enough, you’ve heard about the federal report from 1973 called America Burning. You probably heard it during your recruit training and then forgot about it. Then as you grew up in the fire service, you maybe heard that title again and again. The report was the product of the National Commission on Fire Prevention and Control, and the recommendations of the report led to the establishment of the United States Fire Administration and the National Fire Academy among other things. Many of the things we take for granted in the fire service today are a direct result of the recommendations of this report.
So, it’s a pretty important document in the history of the fire service in the United States. It’s also required reading for some classes at the National Fire Academy. And when Bill had to read it for a class, he went looking for an audiobook version. It turned out that there wasn’t one. So after approaching the U.S. Fire Administration Publications Center to make sure it wouldn’t violate any copyright laws, we decided we wanted to create an audiobook to make it easier for people to access this important document.
Now, many of you may have recorded audiobooks before, but this was a real learning process for us. Each page of the 149 pages of text in the report took about 45 minutes to record. We’ve never read so slow and re-read so many times in our lives. You learn a lot about your breathing, which words to stress, and the fact that you aren’t as good at speaking as you thought you were. Then all of those audio clips that you’ve created have to be edited together until you get your audiobook. All told, it was about a 150 hour process. Enjoy.
Click on a link to listen:
Preface - What This Report is About
Chapter One - The Nation’s Fire Problem
Chapter Two - Living Victims of the Tragedy
Chapter Three - Are There Other Ways?
Chapter Four - Planning for Fire Protection
Chapter Five - Fire Service Personnel
Chapter Six - A National Fire Academy
Chapter Seven - Equipping the Fire Fighter
Chapter Eight - The Hazards We Have Created
Chapter Nine - The Hazards Created Through Materials
Chapter Ten - Hazards Through Design
Chapter Eleven - Codes and Standards
Chapter Twelve - Transportation Fire Hazards
Chapter Thirteen - Rural Fire Protection
Chapter Fourteen - Forest and Grassland Fire Protection
Chapter Fifteen - Fire Safety Education
Chapter Sixteen - Fire Safety for the Home
Chapter Seventeen - Fire Safety for the Young, Old, and Infirm
Chapter Eighteen - Research for Tomorrow’s Fire Problem