Kurt KammI live in Malibu CA. I have used my contact with CalFire, Los Angeles County Fire Department, Ventura County Fire Department and the ATF, as well as my experience in several devastating local wildfires to write fact-based firefighter mystery novels. I have attended classes at El Camino Fire Academy and trained in wildland firefighting, arson investigation and hazardous materials response. I am also a graduate of the ATF Citizen's AcademyEach of my novels features a firefighter with a special skill: Wildland / Arson Investigation / Fire Paramedic / HazMat/ Urban Search and Rescue. Each story is told from the viewpoint of the firefighter and involves both his fire specialty and a a personal problem he is battling.***My latest mystery is TUNNEL VISIONS - Working 5 miles inside a Los Angeles water tunnel in 1971, Willie Carter was one of 17 men killed in a methane explosion in what became known as the Sylmar Tunnel disaster.TUNNEL VISIONS, a work of faction, blends fact and fiction, weaving together the historical facts of the Sylmar disaster, the current struggle for control over California's diminishing water supply, and a fictional plot to attack Los Angeles' water system.Nick Carter, Willie Carter's son, is a firefighter trained in tunnel rescue operations. His fiancée, Cindi, is an ATF Special Agent. On a Sunday in 2014, they are swept up in a massive Homeland Security response to a terror alert in Los Angeles.At the end of TUNNEL VISIONS, when Nick makes a desperate entry into a gas-filled Sylmar Tunnel access shaft in an attempt to save Cindi and prevent an explosion, his past and present are brought together in an unexpected way.***HAZARDOUS MATERIAL, my fourth novel, won the Hackney Literary Award for Best Novel of the year.Bucky Dawson is a HazMat Specialist with Los Angeles County Fire Department HazMat Task Force 103. His station is in Lancaster, CA--an area populated with meth labs and outlaw motorcycle gangs, as well as Edwards AFB, NASA, and top-secret aerospace facilities.Bucky--divorced and lonely--struggles with painkiller addiction. One night Task Force 103 is toned out to support a Sheriff's raid on a meth lab. Bucky thinks he sees his sister at the door of a double- wide trailer in the Mojave Desert just before it explodes.Bucky's life is in chaos. While he searches for answers to his sister's death, he is drawn into a conflict with the Vagos, who are selling drugs in the Mojave Desert. After a confrontation in which the Vagos nearly kill him, Bucky exacts an unusual revenge that only a HazMat firefighter could accomplish.The novel twists and turns, bringing together firefighters, a sinister aerospace engineer, the Vagos -- led by the Dwarf, their seven foot tall Sergeant at Arms, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in a surprise ending you will not anticipate but you will certainly enjoy.***CODE BLOOD tells the story of a rookie fire paramedic who is obsessed with finding the severed foot of his first victim after she dies in his arms. His search takes him into the connected lives of a research student with the rarest blood in the world and the vampire fetishist who is stalking her. Within the corridors of high-stakes medical research laboratories, the shadow world of body parts dealers, and the underground Goth clubs of Los Angeles, the paramedic uncovers a tangled maze of needles, drugs and ritual, all of which lead to death.CODE BLOOD was awarded FIRST PLACE in the 2012 International Book Awards in the Fiction: Cross Genre category. CODE BLOOD was also awarded FIRST PLACE in the 2012 National Indie Excellence Book Awards in the FACTION (fact based fiction) Category***RED FLAG WARNING - A SERIAL ARSON MYSTERY has won three first place mystery fiction awards. Los Angeles County is burning. A serial arsonist is setting the parched hills on fire. Plunge into infernos and face the smoke, heat and danger with the men of the fire lines. While NiteHeat prowls in the darkness, setting fires and taunting investigators, the Los Angeles County Fire Department Arson Unit struggles to find the fire-setter and stop the devastation.***My first novel, ONE FOOT IN THE BLACK - A Wildland Firefighter's Story tells the story of a young firefighter who joins a helitack crew, is called out to a massive wildland fire, and loses his captain in a burnover. After the tragedy, he succumbs to post traumatic stress and has a difficult time overcoming it. ONE FOOT IN THE BLACK has become a favorite with firefighters and other first responders.***I maintain a fire related website at http://www.kurtkamm.com/ It includes fire pictures sent to me from all over the world.Contact me at Kurt@OneFootInTheBlack.com