Things You Save in a Fire

Owen Callaghan—who is called “the rookie” by everyone throughout the novel, even after Cassie learns his name—joins the station two c-shift the same day Cassie does. The rookie is fresh out of the academy, but he comes from a very large Boston family with a long firefighting tradition. Due to this family legacy, Owen feels that it is his duty to become a firefighter. He continues to believe this even after learning that he and Cassie (whom he agrees is the better firefighter) must compete against each other for the same job. It is later revealed that Owen’s dedication to firefighting is in part due to the guilt he feels over an incident that took place in his childhood, when he and a friend accidentally started a fire that killed his uncle. He has more anxiety about the work than most firefighters Cassie knows, and she soon learns that he is quite skilled in the kitchen and would much rather go back to working as a chef.

Much like Cassie, he struggles to forgive himself for the events of the past, even though he was a child when they happened. Though he doesn’t enjoy firefighting, Cassie can see that, like all other firefighters, Owen is a helper and genuinely wants to do good in the world. He is the only firefighter at station two who believes in Cassie from the beginning, but he also sees the tender side of her that she hides beneath her toughness. His vulnerability brings out the vulnerability in Cassie, though she tries to hide her feelings from him most of all. When he tells her he thinks she needs a hug, Cassie’s walls go up, though she is baffled by how well he can read her. At other moments too, they seem to share this unspoken connection, such as when Cassie wants him to come back after a fight and he does, even when she tells him to leave. Similarly, Cassie is the first one Owen tells many of the secrets he has never told anyone else before, illustrating how deep their emotional bond is even when they are trying to ignore it.

In many ways, Owen is also a foil for Cassie, especially as it relates to their profession. Cassie notices early on that “he fit[s] in better than [she] [does]” and describes him as looking like the perfect image of a firefighter, saying, “Everything about his tall, broad, earnest demeanor shouted ‘helper.’ He looked the part” (137). In contrast, their coworkers don’t even recognize that Cassie is a firefighter, despite her being in uniform, when they first meet her and hardly treat her like one even after she has proven her experience and skill. Though he has only just left the academy and has yet to go on a call, Cassie sees that Owen “[is] right out of Central Casting” from the beginning and that he will fit in with the other firefighters in ways she never can (137). Despite this, Owen earnestly roots for her even when no one else will, which ultimately gives her the courage to start rooting for herself too.

Ever since Cassie’s 16th birthday, when her mother left her and her father to be with another man, Cassie has viewed her as one of the main antagonists of her life. She calls her by her first name, Diana, to avoid acknowledging the mother-daughter relationship between them. At the beginning of the novel, Cassie knows little about her mother's life, as she avoids any meaningful conversation with her. After Cassie moves to Massachusetts and begins to spend more time with her mother, she describes their relationship as “complicated,” as her resentment becomes mixed with “sorrow, regret, loneliness, protectiveness, admiration, [and] affection” (87). She soon recognizes that Diana is far more complex than she thought her to be. Diana is arguably the most emotionally mature and experienced primary character in the novel, as she has learned the importance of letting go of the past so she can live in the present—a lesson that Cassie and Owen have to learn over the course of the story. It is clear from the way she details step-by-step instructions for Cassie to forgive her that she has gone through this journey of forgiveness multiple times before and has even forgiven herself for the things that Cassie cannot.

Diana’s view of the world is also far less black and white than Cassie’s. She seeks nuance in all situations, a habit Cassie finds infuriating. While Cassie believes love is useless because it will not stop people from suffering, Diana’s viewpoint is summarized by her declaration that “[i]t’s so hard to feel happy and sad at the same time” (345). Even if happiness brings sadness in its wake, Diana believes it’s worth pursuing anyway. Though she refuses to use an experimental drug with harmful side effects to treat her malignant tumor, she declares that “[she is] fighting. In [her] own way” through meditation and the simple things she does during her illness to bring herself joy (348). By not telling Cassie about her diagnosis, she also shows the complexity of the emotions she has gone through, as she has felt the pain of loving someone who is dying and wishes to spare Cassie that experience. Though Diana’s breezy and lively character begins as a foil to Cassie’s strict routine and structure, as Cassie learns more about herself and what is meaningful to her life, she becomes more like Diana.