Thousands of readers across the country have enjoyed Dave Houseal's stories of the Harriburg Fire Department and Central Pennsylvania volunteer fire service because he is a gifted storyteller whose tales capture the essential truths of America's firefighters.

Dave Houseal became a volunteer firefighter right after high school, and he became a career member of the Harrisburg Fire Department a few years later. He seemed destined for the job; his grandfather had been Chief of the Harrisburg Fire Department, and his father served as the Chief of Progress Fire Department. Quite simply, the fire service was - and is - in Dave Houseal's blood.

He started his career during the American fire service's "War Years"; a period of massive social upheaval, especially in America's cities, that were often frustrating, daunting and dangerous times for firefighters because sometimes you had to fight more than fires. Some folks seemed to think that America's cities were built to burn - to burn as a protest, to burn for a profit, or to burn just for the hell of it. It was a tough time to be a firefighter...but it was also one of the greatest times to become an experienced firefighter.

Dave Houseal had more than a few experiences; some of them harrowing, some of them hilarious, and he shared these stories in his first two bestselling fire books, We Can See It from the Bridge and We Got 'Em on Point. He continues his chronicle of the Harrisburg Fire Department and the Central Pennsylvania fire service in the final volume of his "Harrisburg Trilogy" - They Come In Threes. Lumberyard fires, warehouse fires, hi-rise fires, row house fires, moving tales of quiet courage, and fall-out-of-your-chair laughing firehouse pranks and humor - They Come In Threes has everything Dave Houseal's fans have come to expect.

But it has more, and Dave Houseal's Harriburg Trilogy is more.

Because of the Houseal family's three-generations commitment to the fire service, because the Harrisburg Fire Department has maintained its unusual tradition of paid members supplemented by dedicated volunteers, and because volunteer firefighting companies are still vibrant components of the Central Pennsylvania suburban and rural communities, Dave Houseal's Trilogy is a kind of informal chronicle of the American fire service during the 20th century in the fashion of two writers Dave deeply admires - Harry Ahearn and Leo Stapleton.

Dave Houseal's They Come In Threes is a wonderful collection of compelling tales that pay tribute to firefighting in every city and every town in America. Hardback, 246 pgs.