Proactive firefighters.(Edward Mahoney, Jr. and Walter J. Grace, Jr.)(Brief article)

Usually, firefighters wait at the firehouse until someone sends in an alarm, but two firefighters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, were both the "first callers" and the "first responders" at a fire on November 1.

Deputy Chief Edward Mahoney, Jr. and firefighter Walter J. Grace, Jr. were driving between stations in the pre-dawn darkness when Grace spotted smoke coming from an East Cambridge building. In an interview with the Boston Globe, Mahoney told the Boston Globe in typical New England understated fashion: "You don't come upon [fires] that often. It was pretty interesting, pulling up and having a fire waiting for you." Mahoney radioed for assistance, and the two men ran inside the three-story brick building, which contained apartments on its ...