Why Is It That We Insist Firefighters Are Heroes?

The story of "an ultimately futile act some have described as courageous and others have called a mere postponing of the inevitable" should have us all questioning some basic assumptions — Existentialist Firefighter Delays 3 Deaths.

"I'm no hero," said the subject of the story. "Like any other man, I am thrown into this world, alone and terrified, to play a meaningless role in an empty life. In my case, that role happens to involve charging through towering blazes to pull helpless individuals from a sea of flames before they suffocate or are burnt alive."