Purpose Of Fire Lover: A True Story
The Fire Lover: A True Story is a story about a serial arsonist. This is a piece of art that has been awarded ‘Edgar Award for being the ‘Best Fact Crime’. Joseph Wambaugh depicts a true experience of a fire fighter. This purpose of the story is to highlight the consequences that a firefighter may face. The author tries to show how the lives of the firefighters are always at risk and secures the life of general public by ignoring the risks that they might face.
The Plot
The story revolves around John Orr from Los Angeles, who wants to become a firefighter. His determinations made him a member of the ‘Glendale Fire Department’. With his dedication he becomes a fire captain. He continues with his job and gets established as one of the best arsonist in the southern California. The author elaborates the journey of this young man and describes how he becomes a reputed arson investigator. However there is another surprising side of the story that the author reveals at the end and makes the reader go spell bound. The purpose of this surprising ending is to make people think twice before they consider a firefighter as just an ordinary man living at the verge of risking his life.
Twist and Turns
The story reveals one perpetrator who was beyond any investigator’s reach. Even Orr failed to get hold of this criminal. As the story proceeds, many criminal data were scrutinized but there was no trace of this criminal. There were killings and terrifying environment was prevailing in South California. As the story leads to the end it reveals Orr as the culprit for all the killings that happened in the recent past. The narration has been structured to bring in the essence crime in every single person whom we know. The author tries to give a story a drastic twist and that has been well attempted here.
Meeting Identity Crisis
Turning life-saver into a serial killer; is definitely a story with enough drama and full of suspense. However the story leads the common man to a stage of insecurity and terror. As the story perceived Orr in the beginning as a man with every inch of self sacrificing attitude and shows a different face of his at the end; the reader really gets a different kind of psychological shock. This is definitely not a story with regular human instinct; however its narrative aspect of considering an arsonist as a killer makes the reader belief every inch of it. It is a true story and Wambaugh is the media to bring in the psychological and the inner transformation of a simple man to the public. As a matter of fact the plot has been much inspired by the personal interpretations led by the author. Wambaugh himself faced many situations as a cop and understands the risk involved in it. He definitely feels that the instinct to kill somebody is beyond the capability of a layman. The concern that comes in is in being cold blooded. As an arsonist, Orr never cared to have love for his own life and turned up to be a man full of self-sacrifice.