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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What do arsonists sometimes do when they leave the scene of a fire?
(a) They leave booby traps to hurt firefighters.
(b) They do not call the fire department to report the fire.
(c) They gather evidence of arson and take it away.
(d) They call the fire department anonymously.

2. From which service area did Fireman Vinny Royce switch to join Engine Co. 82?
(a) East Harlem.
(b) Lower East Side.
(c) Beford-Stuyvesant.
(d) Harlem.

3. How did Smith feel when first approached about writing a memoir of firefighting?
(a) Convinced that people would never understand firefighters.
(b) Challenged by the act of writing the way climbers are challenged by mountains.
(c) Concerned that he did not know enough about firefighting.
(d) Concerned that he would be incapable of writing.

4. Why did Smith want to re-read the Yeats poem about wise men becoming tense with violence before they can accomplish fate?
(a) He was trying to understand what causes some men to willingly go into burning buildings.
(b) He was trying to take his mind off his work.
(c) He was trying to understand the situation of people throwing rocks at firefighters.
(d) He was preparing another letter to the editor.

5. How would firefighters have designed a building differently to make firefighting easier, according to Smith?
(a) They would have designed better staircases.
(b) They would have eliminated elevators.
(c) They would have had more fire escapes.
(d) They would have restricted the height.

Short Answer Questions

1. Before discovering the culprit, how did Smith describe the fatal fire on Kelly Street?

2. What was the Kelly Street apartment landlord charged with after the fire?

3. For which time period did Smith work as a firefighter in the South Bronx?

4. How many injured people were found in the Kelly Street apartment?

5. What was wrong with the furnace room where the firefighters retreated for warmth during the Charlotte Street fire?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why, according to Dennis Smith, were so many false alarms were pulled in the South Bronx?

2. How did Dennis Smith get started on writing Report From Engine Co. 82?

3. How did the attack on Firefighter Nick Riso (a brick was thrown at him in Chapter 3) make Smith feel?

4. Why did some of the men defend Chief Marks despite the fact that he was known for yelling at the firefighters?

5. As the fire truck responded to the call on Wilkens Avenue in Chapter 3, what experience did Smith flash back to?

6. Describe how fireman Jim Stack fought the apartment fire at 1284 Fox in Chapter 3.

7. Why were the firefighters remaining at the scene of the fire on Forest Avenue (in Chapter 5) unsure of the names of the injured firemen?

8. Why do you think Dennis Smith found the act of writing the book as exciting as responding to fire calls?

9. Why does Smith say city workers were fleeing cities to live in the suburbs?

10. What did Dennis Smith observe about the attitude of the driver who hit the young boy and was then beaten by the crowd in Chapter 2?

(see the answer keys)

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