An illustrated 200 year history of the development of South Carolina's Capital city fire service from a small trading post with just a bucket brigade to a county-wide metro fire and rescue service with 29 stations, 700 firefighters and 115 responding apparatus.

The book also covers the destruction by fire of the city of Columbia by Sherman's Union troops in 1865 and the rebuilding of fire services with the gift of a hose wagon by the Metropolitan New York Fire Department in 1867. It chronicles the repayment of this gift by the community following the tragic attack on the World Trade Center in 2001.