A friend of mine was a firefighter. He and his wife, both Mormon, had eight children. One day, when my friend was in his early fifties, his wife, in tears, called to tell me he had died of lung cancer from the chemical-laden fumes he had ingested over the years. Few parents realize, as they proudly watch their son don a firefighter’s uniform, that in hazardous professions, death after the job takes twelve times as many of our sons’ lives as death on the job.
