Fire and Ashes: On the Front Lines of American Wildfire

by John N. Maclean

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.

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction, History

256 pages, Hardcover

First published June 2, 2003

About the author

John Norman Maclean is a prize-winning author and journalist, has published four books on fatal wildland fires.

Maclean was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1943, the second of two children.Maclean is the son of Norman Maclean, author of the novella A River Runs Through It.

He attended the Chicago school system through high school and graduated from Shimer College, then in Mt. Carroll, Illinois, a former satellite school of the University of Chicago. An honor student at Shimer, he received the school’s distinguished alumni award in 1975.He married Frances Ellen McGeachie in 1968; they have two adult sons, Daniel, a science teacher in Anchorage, Alaska, and John Fitzroy, a public defender for the state of Maryland.


John Maclean was a writer, editor, and reporter for the Chicago Tribune for 30 years before he resigned in 1995 to begin a second career writing books. Maclean started his journalistic career in 1964 as a police reporter and rewrite man with the legendary City News Bureau of Chicago. He went to work for the Chicago Tribune the following year.

In 1970, Maclean was assigned to the Washington Bureau of the Tribune. As diplomatic correspondent there he covered the State Department and was a regular on the "Kissinger Shuttle," covering much of the "shuttle diplomacy" of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Maclean was a Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard University for the 1974-1975 academic year. He became the Tribune’s Foreign Editor in Chicago in 1988. He resigned from the newspaper in 1995 to write Fire on the Mountain.

Maclean, a frequent speaker at wildland fire academies, workshops, and conventions, is a member of the Seeley Lake Volunteer Fire Department and the Explorer's Club. He is a qualified as a federal public information officer.

Reviews

[Richp · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was pretty good but not that special. Worth more than 3 stars, not enough for four.

[Katherine Addison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of four essays and a "dictionary of formal and informal fire terms." One of the essays, about the Rattlesnake Fire, Maclean has expanded into River of Fire, which I have also reviewed. One is about an entrapment which did not end in tragedy, which is interesting because for once, since there are survivors instead of victims, you can find out what they were thinking. One is about Bob Sallee and the unresolvable question of where Wagner Dodge lit his fire and where Sallee and Rumsey escaped from Mann Gulch. (I'm very defensive of Norman Maclean, because Young Men and Fire is such a brilliant book, but this is a good essay.) One is an overview of American wildfire since 1910. All of the essays are competent; none of them is as good as Maclean's best writing (imho The Esperanza Fire). My favorite part of the book is honestly some of the deadpan definitions in the dictionary, e.g., twig pig: National Park Service law-enforcement ranger. (Firefighters apparently go in for their own kind of rhyming slang.)

So this is a good book, though not a great one.

[CJ Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm beginning plotting a book about a huge fire, like the Yellowstone fire of '88. I'm familiar with the book about the Stone Mountain Fire that Maclean's father wrote. A cousin was chief ranger at Lassen N. P. and one of the men directing fire-fighting efforts in Yellowstone; he showed me around the base for Forest Service helicopters and tankers. I've recently watched the movie, "Only the Brave", about the Stone Mountain Crew.
This Maclean's book was clear, experienced-based, and detailed, many of the details of wild-fire fighting told in stories of forest fires. this is an excellent resource book.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very gripping read about wildfires and the evolution of how to fight them, or not, in the United States. Well-researched, well documented, and very well told stories (3 key fires [two with fatalities and one near miss] from 1949 to 1999) and the results of the fire investigations.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

An informative read with some exciting parts, it is especially pertinent to those of us who have been effected by wildfire.

[Roger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent description of actual wildfire fighting conditions , including 3 fires with significant firefighter casualties.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not to downplay the lessons learned or official reports available from the investigation committees and the USFS on tragedy fires, but I think its important to understand that fatality fires are not limited to a single moment in time and space, but instead are an accumulation of habits, training, factors, fire behavior etc. John Maclean does a good job of researching his characters and providing readers with the background information necessary to have a semblance of understanding about the situation.

[Chris Fry · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well written book of the account of three wildland fire burnover incidents. But knowing some of the people invovled in one of the burnovers, some of the facts are precieved differently.

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I had expected, but a good case-history of a few historic wildfires in the US.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

read the section about the Sadler Fire in Nevada for a project.

[Toesnorth's mom]

too, too

[Janice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating.

[Patrick Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

A true collection of courage.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed for High Country News, October 2003:
http://www.hcn.org/issues/260/14316

[Michael Heyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good book