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What Did They Die for

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Submitted By uuuuyaxiao
Words 1311
Pages 6
Xiao Liang
Kelly Robert
English 101-02
Essay #3
3/30/2014
What Did the Firefighters Die for?
A Response to Timothy Egan Do you have a friend or a relative who is a firefighter? Have you heard of what firefighters do? Have you seen how firefighters rescue people and property at the spot or on television? What is a firefighter? A firefighter also known as a fireman, is a rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten property and civilian or natural populations and to rescue people from dangerous situations, like collapsed or burning buildings. Luckily or unluckily, my cousin work as a firefighter. Since he became a firefighter, I never saw him at home having the dinner with us in Chinese New Year. He has to stand guard, and wait for the order if there something happen. We all know that the job as a firefighter is really dangerous. There is an explosion in my city as a result of the oil spilling. All of the firefighters including my cousin in my city went to the first rescue line to save lives and buildings. Everyone is in danger. Unfortunately, someone died in that accident. So that comes to problem: Should firefighters contribute their lives to save other’s lives or properties? My answer is no. It might because that I have someone who has the relationship with me in blood. So that I feel his life is important for me. I want him to protect his own life instead of saving others.
How fire happens? It is clear that there are some place that can easily catch fire. Like some places near the forest or rainless. We know that if there is only a little fire in a tree, it will spread quickly.
We learned some examples from Egan’s article. He argued that firefighters don’t have to die for people’s property and homeowners cannot blame firefighters. He shows the fire happens in Arizona where is really beautiful “ … , where the land rises up from the ceaseless heat of the valley to the cooler air of the plateau. It is stunning country, even with the menace of monsoon winds in summer” And it is located in the forest that fire truck cannot easily get in. Fire fighters were sent to the advance guard of a tricky fire to protect the gold-mining community. Nobody was there, but it was easily to explosion. The accident is even greater than the one happened in Sept.11. Who caught the fire? Why they live in such a dangerous place? But we cannot blame the people living there since we know that the scenery there is so beautiful. Egan points that homeowners shout at the firefighters” do something” they asked them to save their properties. And they believe that firefighters died for them and firefighters should do that for them.
It is unfair for firefighters when people shouted at them. They contribute their lives to save people’s home. The fire is not set by firefighters, it is the person who lives there set the fire. And the living condition make the firefighters cannot easily get into the fire spot to rescue. So, why do house owner shout at fire fighters. They should not do that. We can understand that people are in panic because their house are burned in fire. They are losing the thing they love. They are nervous, they are afraid. So they may rage and scream. But the homeowners know that living in fire country is different from living in other place. They know that they have more possibilities than people living in other place to stuck in fire. And they should know that living in that kind of place, it is difficult for fire fighters to get in. So that the lose must be great. They make a deal when they decided to live there.
Admittedly, to protect the property of people is the job of firefighters. They know how dangerous of their job. They made their determination when they choose this job. So someone thinks that it is unnecessary to feel guilty if firefighters died for protecting their houses. Firefighters are trained how to fight against fire, how to rescue the people who is stuck in the fire. And they love their job. Indeed, that is true. But we cannot say this point is totally right. Just like one public service advertising which I have seen. “ No trade, no killing.” It is same to this problem. If there is no fire happens, we don’t need firefighters. An so there is no death.
But I still agree most of author’s idea. Firefighters should not die for anyone. Life is equal. We understand that firefighters contribute their lives to save human beings. It is not good to exchange one life to another life. Firefighters have the right to rescue people’s lives and properties, and they also have rights to save their lives. Also, they should not be criticized if they fail in saving or they are late to be there. I do believe that homeowners should not expect firefighters to die for saving their place. Just like what the author says at the end of his article, “a tragedy where nothing much was left of the elite who came from the sky but courage struggling for oxygen.” Firefighters should not die for anything.

Reference
The definition of firefighters from: Wikipedia
Timothy, Egan. “New West, Old Story” The New Yorks Times 4 July, 2013
Grading Rubric, Essay 3 Draft 1
Xiao L.- Clear, focused argument. The essay has an identifiable and clear thesis statement. The argument is well developed and supported by the body of the essay. You have a good thesis, yet it needs to include why you think firefighters should not lose their lives and it should be stated in comparison to Egan’s ideas. Also, later in the essay you make the intriguing point that firefighters would not have to risk their lives if there were no fires. Can you expand on that idea? Do you think the focus should be on fire prevention? Finally, you need a few more points of support for your main claim (thesis). What else can you say to convince me that your point is one we should follow? | 10 points 7 | Appropriate summary of article. The essay offers a clear and accurate summary of the article that demonstrates the writer’s understanding of the original argument. Overall, this was good. Yet you needed to include the name of the article and where it was published as well as Egan’s first name. | 10 points 8 | Organization. The essay is organized coherently as a whole and at the paragraph level. There are strong topic sentences that help the reader to easily make sense of and follow the essay’s ideas.Your thesis should be stated in comparison to Egan’s thesis, therefore you should summarize the article before you state your thesis.Also, the topic sentences of your supporting paragraphs need to be more specific. Tell the reader the main point of the paragraph in the very first sentence of each paragraph. | 10 points 6 | Appropriate citation. The essay includes (and properly incorporates) quotations from the original article. The essay avoids plagiarism, either intentional or unintentional, by using attributive tags and page citations where appropriate. See my note in the first paragraph about citing your sources. Also, make sure the Works Cited page is in MLA format. | 10 points 7 | Proper editing and format, including correct use of MLA citation style. The essay is free of spelling, punctuation, and other mechanical errors, and is formatted properly. It is in MLA format, and includes a Works Cited page. This was a little on the short side; it should be at least 1,000 words. | 10 points 8 | TOTAL POINTS FOR ESSAY 3 Draft 1 | 50 points 36 |

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