The Heat of the Moment: A Firefighter's Stories of Life and Death Decisions

How does a person feel when, by duty, they must make not the best decision, but the least bad one? Firefighters face such situations again and again: a child is trapped in a building that is about to collapse and could bury the rescuers under the rubble. Whose life should they save? Author Sabrina Cohen-Hatton became a firefighter at the age of 18. As she climbed the career ladder, she personally experienced the pressure of decision-making and asked herself: is there a way to help fire commanders solve similar difficult tasks? To do that, she received additional training in psychology and conducted a large-scale study by examining firefighters’ behavior right on the battlefield. Of course, even just entering a burning building—facing the flow of people running out of it—is incredibly difficult. But thanks to the author’s vivid, highly realistic descriptions, you’ll be able to feel what it means to hold not only the lives of ordinary people in your hands, but also the lives of the rescuers themselves.