When faced with the quintessential childhood question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” kids often doodle stick figures clad in yellow, wielding water hoses. After all, firefighters are the stuff of local legends—while most people run from danger, they actively seek it out. Their heroics are chronicled above the fold in newspapers and their actions are immortalized in comic books in the form of cape-wearing heroes who soar to safety with frail grandmothers under their arms, This story is from Kinfolk Issue Nineteen Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 47 That’s Life The quiet tyranny of clichés. Arts & Culture Food Issue 47 Object Matters An itemized history of the menu. Arts & Culture Issue 46 Future Proof How not to become a cultural dinosaur. Arts & Culture Issue 45 The Whole Story The power of cradle-to-grave novels. Arts & Culture Issue 41 Mixed Emoji Is a picture worth a thousand words? Arts & Culture Issue 38 Social Work Hettie O’Brien considers the cost of never logging off.
