Lessons from the Iron Door
Growing up in Miami’s Liberty City housing projects, Charles Maree’s mother had one rule: safety first. Every morning,…
Welcome to Charles Danny Maree
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Welcome to the Official Website of Charles Danny Maree
Charles Maree is a retired Miami firefighter and former Assistant Fire Chief. In Gods of Fire, he recounts his experiences: his childhood in segregated Miami, 30 years fighting fires while combating department racism, and his rise through the ranks. On his website, you will walk his journey, explore his memoir, and see why readers call it “unforgettable.”
Vision:
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Mission:
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My Publishers
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Meet the Author
Charles Danny Maree
Charles Maree is a retired Miami firefighter who rose from the city’s Liberty City projects to become Assistant Fire Chief across his 30-year career. He earned his high school diploma through night classes at 21 and later completed an Associate’s in Emergency Medical Services (1996), a Bachelor’s in Public Administration, and a Master’s in Management.
Maree faced systemic racism as one of only four Black officers promoted to captain or higher in the department’s first century. After his retirement, he now volunteers at Camillus House, where he serves Miami’s homeless community. His journey from locking himself in his mother’s iron door as a child to leading emergency crews reflects resilience without pretense.
Book Blurb
Gods Of Fire
Gods of Fire is Charles Maree’s true story of surviving Miami’s fire department for 30 years… not in fire but in extreme toxic people. As a Black firefighter, he faced officers called “gods” who sabotaged his career, counseling him for laughing loudly, setting traps before promotions. Walk from stealing tangerines in the ’68 riots to saving babies in rescue trucks. Feel the iron door of his childhood projects. Hear a chief say, “We can’t have too many Blacks at the top.” This is how he climbed while they shook the ladder.
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged.
Reviews
What Readers Are Saying
Finished this in a week. I cried at when Charles described filing his teeth with a metal tool... I could feel the pain. His struggle against the ‘gods’ in the department like counseled for laughing loud is every Black firefighter’s truth. The tangerine riot scene stuck with me. Not just a book; our history.
Go Beyond the Book
Blogs and Updates
Read blogs and articles on struggles, success stories, and resilience. Apart from that, you will get book updates too.
The Friday Setup—When Persistence Becomes Power
Near the end of fire academy training, Charles and three other recruits faced what should have been a…
From Tangerines to Transformation
In 1968, ten-year-old Charles Maree crawled through a broken grocery store window during Miami’s riots. Others grabbed cash,…
