Fire and Ashes: On the Front Lines of American Wildfire - Hardcover

John N. Maclean

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805072128 ISBN 13: 9780805072129

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co., 2003

Synopsis

An expert’s report from the front lines where wildland fires keep getting hotter, bigger, and more dangerous to the men and women who fight them

In 2002, more than seven million acres were burned at a fire-fighting cost of over a billion dollars. Are wilderness fires now a tragic and enduring feature of the American landscape? John N. Maclean, author of the acclaimed Fire on the Mountain, offers a view from the front lines, combining action-packed storytelling with moving insights about firefighters and informed analysis of firefighting strategy past and present.

Beginning with a riveting account of the worst case of arson in wildfire history, the 1953 Rattlesnake Fire in Mendocino National Forest, which claimed the lives of fifteen firefighters, Maclean explains the mysterious dynamics of fire, and the courage and techniques required to combat it. One such mystery underlines the life- threatening 1999 Sadler Fire in Nevada when a line of flames suddenly blew up, trapping six firefighters mistakenly placed in harm’s way. For the final story Maclean returns to Mann Gulch, the site of his father’s classic Young Men and Fire, to interview the last survivor of the worst disaster in the history of smoke jumping. From it we understand why fatal fires burn for generations.

Offering a prescient view of the inevitable conflict between people, property, and nature, Fire and Ashes presents a riveting and emotional story, one that in many ways John Maclean was destined to tell.

About this title

About the Author:

John N. Maclean was a writer, reporter, and editor for the Chicago Tribune for thirty years. His first book, Fire on the Mountain, was the MPBA best nonfiction title of 1999. A longtime student of wildfire, he assisted in the posthumous publication of Young Men and Fire, which was written by his father, Norman Maclean. He divides his time between Washington, D.C., and
Montana.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

From Fire and Ashes:

Horton, running flat out next to Naar, figured it had to be the weather that had betrayed him. He knew the afternoon winds would be strong; he knew the fire was building up. The burnout, though, had proceeded beautifully. He and his crew were at the head of a major fire conducting the day’s biggest operation, the crucial burnout. He had picked people who could handle the job. There would be more plum assignments to come.

Then out of nowhere a gigantic fire whirl had appeared followed by a wall of flame, and
suddenly it was the worst moment of his career and even of his life. It had to be a dirty trick of the weather, not something he had done himself.

Things began to happen at speeds Horton had only heard about. Low grass transformed into tall flames. A wave of airless heat struck him a blow. He felt a stinging pain on his neck and dived headfirst into the grass, landing next to Naar. When he opened his eyes everything around him—the ground, his gloved hands, the exposed skin of his wrist and his yellow fire shirt—shimmered an incandescent white, except for one dark, round patch under his head, as though an atomic bomb had gone off and all that remained was a nuclear shadow.

About this edition

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0805072128
• ISBN 13: 9780805072129
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256