The National Fire Heritage Center was established to preserve the history of America’s fire services.  Currently the archive library contains over 15,000 logged documents of major historical value.  Benjamin Franklin, the father of America’s Fire Service, left a vast legacy of written products. He encouraged writers to “go on record” as to their beliefs, observations, and support of public and private initiatives. Through the Benjamin Franklin Fire Writer’s Award, the National Fire Heritage Center encourages today’s fire writers to do the same.

The Benjamin Franklin Writers Award was established to recognize current and past authors of books, magazines, newsletters, and a variety of media who have preserved America’s fire service history through their writings.  Their stories keep alive the events and people who might otherwise have been lost through generations of change. 

We are pleased to announce the 2021 Benjamin Franklin Writers Award Winners and recognize their contributions to preserving diverse aspects of America’s Fire Services. 

Gold winners included Bill Killen, author of The History of the Apollo and Skylab Astronaut Rescue Team, and Gregory Noll and Michael Hildebrand, co-authors of Hazardous Materials: Managing the Incident. 

Silver winners were Sherrie Wilson, first female firefighter in Dallas Fire Department and author of Faith by Fire; Anton Riecher, co-author of Disasters Man-Made, and David E. Hedrick, author of the University of Missouri FRTI 2017 Fire Service Training Survey Report.

Bronze winners include Bill Killen, for three entries, Firefighting with Henry’s Model T, the Model T Times newsletter, and Hallock Chemical Fire Engine; and,John Townsend, author of Focus on Hazmat Column in Industrial Fire World magazine.

Learn more about their contributions by accessing their documents digitally from the NFHC archive library though https://fireheritageusa.org/collections/. Join us in recognizing their work and consider whose writings should be nominated for the 2022 award.