The Fire Rebels

They're taking on the American firefighting establishment with a precision method of dousing flames. The hot new way to save lives and burning buildings: bursts of delicate fog.

By Joshua Davis
wired magazine


Blazing the way: Battalion chief Ed Hartin (front and center) with members of the Gresham, Oregon, fire department.

Ed Hartin has an impressive firefighter's mustache. From the corners of his mouth, it stretches out to his jowls like an umbrella protecting his lips. It doesn't exactly fit him. Most of the time, he cultivates the air of a college professor - he's studying part-time for a doctorate - and he admits to a fondness for Wagner. But sometimes you need a big mustache to get other firefighters to listen to you.

"The fire service in the United States is a 200-year-old institution unimpeded by progress," Hartin tells a group of firefighters at a training center in Gresham, Oregon. He's the battalion chief in charge of training in this small town bordering Portland. It's a cool spring morning, and 20 feet away fires blaze inside two steel shipping containers. The men are clad in full battle gear: face masks on, air tanks flowing, helmets strapped, and hoses ready.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.06/firefight.html?tw=wn_tophead_1

Amelia lives just on the fringe of Gresham