| Summary: | Emotions are a key dimension in helping professions, but they often appear less important than the technical aspects. This work begins with a collection of declarations from firefighters working in various situations and aims to stimulate reflection about how the change of emotional aspects depends mainly on age, job experience and the ordinary or extraordinary nature of the context. Inexpert and younger firefighters express emotions with more intensity whereas the expert ones have more effective tools to keep emotional impact at distance. We often think that maxi-emergencies, that are extraordinary events, are richer in emotions than the other events, but the research gives different results about this. The most striking elements are those linked to unusual scenaries, that are typical of extraordinary events as well as of ordinary ones: so, even an ordinary event may become an extraordinary event. A noteworthy fact emerging form this work is the vulnerability to children, which is present at every age. Moreover, there is a remark on the importance of psychologists in emergency areas, and some firefighters who had to cope with very difficult situations emphasize their role.
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