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  • Guest Post: Fighting Fires in America’s Drizzliest City by Daisy Harris

Hello everyone! I am so excited to welcome author Daisy Harris to join us today.  Daisy is here to chat with us about firefighters as part of Men in Uniform Week!  In particular, she has some great things to share about Seattle firefighters!  So please join me in giving her a big welcome!

Fighting Fires in America’s Drizzliest City

men in uniform weekHi, guys! And hi, Jay. Thanks for having me on the blog today!

I’m here to talk about the sexiness that is firefighters, and in particular the sexiness that is Seattle’s Firefighters. All this hotness is vast and covers a lot of area. Let’s start at the beginning, with the sheer fact that these are men who run into burning buildings…

That alone is enough to catapult them into upper stratospheres of hotness. Fire is one of the scariest things known to mankind, which is probably why when people came up with idea of hell, they decided there would be fire there. Mud is pretty unpleasant. As is rain or snow, or even cold temperatures. Splinters under your fingernails suck, too. But none of those are featured as prominently as fire in the Torments of Hades.

(Oddly, now I want to write a paranormal called A Firefighter in Hell. But I digress.)

With all the amazeballs that is the running-into-burning-buildings thing, it’s easy to forget all the other stuff firefighters do to protect us. For example, they perform fire inspections, which sounds incredibly boring and unsexy, but probably saves more lives than the running-into-a-burning-building part of their job. Ditto the fire safety and fire education presentations firefighters do in the community.

Cover art by Kanaxa

Most of us remember those times as a kid when men in uniform would come to our school and tell us not to play with matches or how to stop, drop, and roll. Well, if you know enough to stay close to the ground in a fire, and not open a door and let the fire spread—thank a firefighter!

Firefighters everywhere are dedicated to prevention, but I’ve gotta admit, I suspect that goes triple in Seattle.  After all, our entire city pretty much burned to the ground during The Great Seattle Fire of 1889. Back in June of that year, some idiot was heating glue over a gasoline fire. At 2:30 in the morning, the glue boiled over, catching fire, which quickly spread to the wood chips and turpentine the guy had lying all over the floor.

For once, it had been a dry spring, and the fire spread fast enough to destroy all of downtown. Seriously. 25 city blocks, gone. They could see the smoke in Tacoma. Suffice to say, the volunteer fire department of the time was completely ill equipped to contain the flames before they ate all the conveniently-flammable cedar and pine buildings.

In true Seattle fashion, businessmen and citizens rebuilt quickly, and one of the first orders of business was to make the fire department a paid force and to hire a new fire chief. (Interestingly, the city also took control of the water supply, which had been privately owned before the fire.)

Maybe it’s the legacy of The Great Seattle Fire and maybe it’s just our Northwestern control-freak nature, but the Seattle Fire Department is now committed to making Seattle the most prepared city in America. Which…if you think about it, will make us even more boring than we currently are. Already, the fire department responded to 2,200 fewer fires in 2012 than it did in 2008. Go prevention!

nothing but smokeBecause—let’s face it—there really aren’t that many fires in Seattle, our firefighters provide emergency medical services as well. They swoop to the rescue in cases of car accidents, heart attacks, and even things like shootings where there might be victims in need of help. In fact, out of the roughly 80,000 emergency calls the department responded to in 2012, only 12,000 of those were fires. All the rest were some manner of call for medical services.

So, firefighter—yes, they are sexy as anything when they’re saving you from a fire. But they’re even sexier when they’re preventing the fire from happening in the first place. Remember that next time you think about using a barbeque on a covered porch!

(Which, by the way, is not only stupid, but also illegal in Seattle. Seriously. The neighbors will call the cops.)


Want to read more about Seattle firefighters? Check out my series Fire and Rain from Samhain Publishing! It features sexy man-loving firefighters in states of undress, not to mention plenty of rainy weather.

Book 2, After the Rain, released this week!

After the rainThey’re going to need a bigger tent.

Henri’s list of bad exes is as long as his arm, but nothing prepared him for his latest, heart-stomping breakup. He thought he couldn’t feel more abandoned, until his ride for a group camping trip bails, leaving him stuck driving for hours with a guy who is absolutely not his type.

After breaking up with his girlfriend of five years, firefighter Logan is working up the nerve to explore his interest in men. He knows he’s gay. He just hasn’t had the guts to do anything about it…until now.

Henri’s big-city attitude and tight jeans push every last one of Logan’s buttons, and when he and Henri have to share a tent, Logan is thrilled. He should have realized Pacific Northwest weather would get wet—forcing them to strip naked.

Though the steam between them is thicker than coastal fog, Henri’s not sure he can let himself fall for another man. Not even the guy who finally treats him right.

Warning: Contains bad ex-boyfriends, even worse weather, and more than your average amount of sex in a tent. May not be suitable for those with germ phobias, outdoor aversions or fear of damp shoes.


daisy harrisBirkenstock-wearing glamour girl and mother of two by immaculate conception, Daisy Harris still isn’t sure if she writes erotica. Her romances start out innocently enough. However, her characters behave like complete sluts. Much to Miss Harris’s dismay the sex tends to get completely out of hand.

She writes about fantastical creatures and about young men getting their freak on, and she’s never missed an episode of The Walking Dead.

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