The Fires: How a Computer Formula, Big Ideas, and the Best of Intentions Burned Down New York City-and Determined the Future of Cities
Joe Flood

In his book The Fires: How a Computer Formula, Big Ideas, and the Best of Intentions Burned Down New York City-and Determined the Future of Cities author Joe Flood doesn’t just provide a narrative account, he gives a well-documented admonishment directed toward politicians, urban planners, and other entities that help shape the built environment in which we live.  Simply put, Flood warns of an over-reliance on statistical modeling and a lack of human input in decision-making.  Flood centers his focus on the career of New York Fire Department Chief John O’Hagan and the political maneuvering that allowed the NYFD to weather the department’s “War Years” (a time period characterized by widespread fires in impoverished areas, social upheaval, and economic turmoil).  Flood also maintains a larger focus on the systems of government that Chief O’Hagan found himself tangled within during his reign as well as the larger bureaucratic frameworks that were being integrated into society at the time. 

Flood tells a fascinating story that unravels the political machinery of New York City present in the 1970s.  He also shows how the post-War United States launched into efforts that captured the rigid efficiencies and systems thinking that helped the United States achieve military victories.  In many ways the story of Chief O’Hagan and the NYFD is merely a vehicle used to convey the larger workings of governance.  The Fires allows the reader to see by relation how a quick jump to computing and insistence upon quantitative analysis fueled many of the problems we now associate with the post-War era (White flight, suburbanization, automobile dependence, etc.).

The Fires is a well-written insight into how government works.  For those already well-acquainted with the system, Flood provides an emotional reminder of the true impact of government and the importance of valuing individuals as individuals rather than part of the whole.  In an age of continued technological innovation, it is important to understand why we must not allow statistics and quantitative data to stand on its own.  Flood repeatedly shows the ability of data to perpetuate cycles of oppressive behavior as well as its ability to maximize majority interest.  While one might easily dismiss The Fires as an anthology of esoteric knowledge about the fire service, this book is a must read for anyone interested in any of the underpinnings of the built environment.  Flood unearths a variety of moral and ethical issues as well as their implications leaving the reader with some standing sense of responsibility to correct those issues.  I found this book to be a powerfully grounding account about political power and the outright necessity of actual human input.