CLEARWATER, Fla. — When you're looking through children's books about firefighters, it's often illustrated as them running into burning buildings or saving kittens from a tree. Jerome Mourelatos noticed this while reading to his two sons.
Mourelatos is a firefighter and paramedic at Clearwater Fire Station #49. He decided to write his own book to better show all of what firefighters do on the job for his kids.
His book "The Adventures of Alex and Ben and the Beachwater Fire Department" shows firefighters responding to car crashes, medical calls and even conducting a water rescue. All things Mourelatos does on a regular basis as a real-life firefighter.
"[Firefighters are] portrayed as just doing the fire scenes," Mourelatos explained. "And a lot of kids don't realize, when they get sick, we're going to the calls.
"We have a rescue unit, I call it the boo-boo mobile to our little kids. We bring the bandaids. If they get sick, we're coming. I'm a paramedic too and we treat them."
The parallels in the book and in Mourelatos life are plentiful. The book takes place at "Beachwater Fire Department" which is a nod to Clearwater. Also, the book's main characters, Ben and Alex, come from personal inspiration — Mourelatos sons.
"They loved it," Mourelatos said. "They were excited when I was reading it. The two little characters, they were like, that's my name!"
Mourelatos has been a firefighter in Clearwater for fifteen years. He wrote his book years ago when his sons were little. The book was finally published in October of 2021.
Anyone interested in the book, you're in luck — it's for sale on Amazon. For the link, click here.