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When It All Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World
A hotshot firefighter’s gripping firsthand account of a record-setting fire season
Eighteen of California’s largest wildfires on record have burned in the past two decades. Scientists recently invented the term “megafire” to describe wildfires that behave in ways that would have been nearly impossible just a generation ago, burning through winter, exploding in the night, and devastating landscapes historically impervious to incendiary destruction.
In When It All Burns, wildland firefighter and anthropologist Jordan Thomas recounts a single, brutal six-month fire season with the Los Padres Hotshots—the special forces of America’s firefighters. Being a hotshot is among the most difficult jobs on earth. Thomas viscerally renders his crew’s attempts to battle flames that are often too destructive to contain. He uncovers the hidden cultural history of megafires, revealing how humanity’s symbiotic relationship with wildfire became a war—and what can be done to change it back.
Thomas weaves ecology and the history of Indigenous peoples' oppression, federal forestry, and the growth of the fire industrial complex into a riveting narrative about a new phase in the climate crisis. It's an immersive story of community in the most perilous of circumstances, told with humor, humility, and affection.
* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF containing a map of the wildfires fought by Los Padres Hotshot Crew in California in 2001.
PLEASE When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
Eighteen of California’s largest wildfires on record have burned in the past two decades. Scientists recently invented the term “megafire” to describe wildfires that behave in ways that would have been nearly impossible just a generation ago, burning through winter, exploding in the night, and devastating landscapes historically impervious to incendiary destruction.
In When It All Burns, wildland firefighter and anthropologist Jordan Thomas recounts a single, brutal six-month fire season with the Los Padres Hotshots—the special forces of America’s firefighters. Being a hotshot is among the most difficult jobs on earth. Thomas viscerally renders his crew’s attempts to battle flames that are often too destructive to contain. He uncovers the hidden cultural history of megafires, revealing how humanity’s symbiotic relationship with wildfire became a war—and what can be done to change it back.
Thomas weaves ecology and the history of Indigenous peoples' oppression, federal forestry, and the growth of the fire industrial complex into a riveting narrative about a new phase in the climate crisis. It's an immersive story of community in the most perilous of circumstances, told with humor, humility, and affection.
* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF containing a map of the wildfires fought by Los Padres Hotshot Crew in California in 2001.
PLEASE When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
Audible Audio
Published May 27, 2025
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September 8, 2025
“By making an enemy of fire, we’d made an enemy of the land.”
Preamble:
--I finished this book under a blood-red sun, as wildfire smoke descended on the Pacific Northwest. The worse the world gets, the better my readings get, as all my priority topics become that much more dire.
--While Global North capitalism/settler colonialism dream of returning to “normal”, wildfire smoke reaching rich cities across continents is one alarm that cannot be completely silenced. I’m reminded of Juilan Assange describing human’s ability to adapt as our best and worst feature: best, when we overcome great hardships; worst, when we tolerate great abuses.
--An anthropologist detailing his experience as an elite wildland firefighter (Los Padres Hotshot crew)? I have high standards for memoirs/biographies, so it takes a special one to crack the top tier (ex. The Scalpel, the Sword: The Story of Dr. Norman Bethune).
Highlights:
1) Indigenous Fire Stewardship:
--Every time I hear the cynical notion that humans are a “virus” destined to destroy “nature”, I am reminded of colonialism/capitalism’s necessary illusions. Alternatives must be censored.
--This book skips the fascinating anthropology of politics (decision-making) and how this affects class/gender/environmental relations (hunting gathering vs. agriculture):
-Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior
-Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding
-Affluence Without Abundance: The Disappearing World of the Bushmen
--This book starts with indigenous societies throughout the world modifying their environment as stewards, rather than some pristine “nature” free of human interference. Fire has been a conveniently-missing evidence for Western scholarship (citing Omer C. Stewart’s Forgotten Fires: Native Americans and the Transient Wilderness, apparently written in 1957 but only published in 2002):
i) Controlled burning (stimulating regeneration of soil/germination of seeds/diversify species etc.) has long been a tool to steward biodiversity (mosaic of ecosystems; diversity builds resilience against imbalances; thus, creating fire-dependent ecologies)
ii) Process of cultural burning weaves socioecological relationships (interconnections between humans/environment, between humans i.e. community; responsibility for future generations) into cultural values.
…Also see: The Earth's Blanket: Traditional Teachings for Sustainable Living; it’s important to center the growing indigenous scholarship trying to decolonize academia (ex. Iwigara: The Kinship of Plants and People: American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and Science).
2) Capitalist Commodification and Fire Suppression:
--The actual virus is colonialism/capitalism’s endless commodification/accumulation, another fascinating story that requires a deeper dive:
-Debt: The First 5,000 Years
-Perilous Passage: Mankind and the Global Ascendancy of Capital
--This book still provides a great intro: colonialism/capitalism’s need for cheap labour (commodification of humans) and thus its criminalization of indigenous fires to destroy alternative ways of life and enforce dependency.
--Furthermore, the book makes the crucial connection with Europe’s domestic colonization (enclosures), where Europe’s own rural masses (who had their own indigenous relations with the land, including use of fire) were also criminalized/dispossessed to enforce dependency on wage labour (key input to the rising capitalism’s “dark, Satanic mills”). Elites like Malthus wanted to take the leisure of the masses and convert it to toil for private profits.
…I try to emphasize this connection to those who struggle to relate to the indigenous “other” (also see: Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation). I’m reminded of MLK Jr.:
…Such viral commodification of nature does raise contradictions. The book focuses on the conservation movement (symbolized by president Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt), which wanted to create a new moral imperative to regulate endless commodification. However, they were still biased by settler colonialism displacing indigenous peoples and assuming pristine “nature”.
…Eventually, this regulation via the US Forest Service (under the Department of Agriculture; hint: commodification) became financially captured by the logging industry. Total fire suppression was implemented. Forests were converted to monocrop commodities: trees of the same age/species, with increased density (hint: increased fuel). All to maximize profits. Diverse forest ecologies became a tinderbox.
--As this is the US, everything is tied to war. Fire suppression was a priority in WWII to protect timber reserves. With the end of the Vietnam war, the arms industry sold explosives to the Forest Service: “instead of dropping the hotshots [wildland firefighters] in a meadow, they would bomb a hilltop and land in the crater” (can you get more American?!). Monsanto repackaged the infamous Agent Orange and sold it to the Forest Service as a herbicide: “Military veterans who joined Linane’s crew had the peculiar experience of watching familiar airplanes shower California’s mountains with the same biochemical weapons they had used to root out Viet Cong fighters.” (OK, you can get more American).
--The book skips over the decline of Industrial capitalism and rise of Finance capitalism, another fascinating story: The Global Minotaur: America, the True Origins of the Financial Crisis and the Future of the World Economy
…The book jumps to the effects: rise of privatization (The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism); this was paired with climate denialism (Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming) which later became climate delayism (The Climate Book: The Facts and the Solutions).
--The climate crisis ignited capitalism/colonization’s tinderbox, resulting in the new normal of uncontrolled fires that lack the regenerative effects of indigenous fires and further escalate the climate/ecological crises :
…see comments below for rest of the review…
Preamble:
--I finished this book under a blood-red sun, as wildfire smoke descended on the Pacific Northwest. The worse the world gets, the better my readings get, as all my priority topics become that much more dire.
--While Global North capitalism/settler colonialism dream of returning to “normal”, wildfire smoke reaching rich cities across continents is one alarm that cannot be completely silenced. I’m reminded of Juilan Assange describing human’s ability to adapt as our best and worst feature: best, when we overcome great hardships; worst, when we tolerate great abuses.
--An anthropologist detailing his experience as an elite wildland firefighter (Los Padres Hotshot crew)? I have high standards for memoirs/biographies, so it takes a special one to crack the top tier (ex. The Scalpel, the Sword: The Story of Dr. Norman Bethune).
Highlights:
1) Indigenous Fire Stewardship:
--Every time I hear the cynical notion that humans are a “virus” destined to destroy “nature”, I am reminded of colonialism/capitalism’s necessary illusions. Alternatives must be censored.
--This book skips the fascinating anthropology of politics (decision-making) and how this affects class/gender/environmental relations (hunting gathering vs. agriculture):
-Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior
-Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding
-Affluence Without Abundance: The Disappearing World of the Bushmen
--This book starts with indigenous societies throughout the world modifying their environment as stewards, rather than some pristine “nature” free of human interference. Fire has been a conveniently-missing evidence for Western scholarship (citing Omer C. Stewart’s Forgotten Fires: Native Americans and the Transient Wilderness, apparently written in 1957 but only published in 2002):
i) Controlled burning (stimulating regeneration of soil/germination of seeds/diversify species etc.) has long been a tool to steward biodiversity (mosaic of ecosystems; diversity builds resilience against imbalances; thus, creating fire-dependent ecologies)
ii) Process of cultural burning weaves socioecological relationships (interconnections between humans/environment, between humans i.e. community; responsibility for future generations) into cultural values.
…Also see: The Earth's Blanket: Traditional Teachings for Sustainable Living; it’s important to center the growing indigenous scholarship trying to decolonize academia (ex. Iwigara: The Kinship of Plants and People: American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and Science).
2) Capitalist Commodification and Fire Suppression:
--The actual virus is colonialism/capitalism’s endless commodification/accumulation, another fascinating story that requires a deeper dive:
-Debt: The First 5,000 Years
-Perilous Passage: Mankind and the Global Ascendancy of Capital
--This book still provides a great intro: colonialism/capitalism’s need for cheap labour (commodification of humans) and thus its criminalization of indigenous fires to destroy alternative ways of life and enforce dependency.
--Furthermore, the book makes the crucial connection with Europe’s domestic colonization (enclosures), where Europe’s own rural masses (who had their own indigenous relations with the land, including use of fire) were also criminalized/dispossessed to enforce dependency on wage labour (key input to the rising capitalism’s “dark, Satanic mills”). Elites like Malthus wanted to take the leisure of the masses and convert it to toil for private profits.
…I try to emphasize this connection to those who struggle to relate to the indigenous “other” (also see: Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation). I’m reminded of MLK Jr.:
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.--Settler-colonial profit-seeking manufactured a moral imperative to tame nature. Nature only has “value” (economic value) once it’s privatized/sold (exchange-value; commodification of nature). For forests, it’s timber. Fire suppression protected these commodities.
…Such viral commodification of nature does raise contradictions. The book focuses on the conservation movement (symbolized by president Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt), which wanted to create a new moral imperative to regulate endless commodification. However, they were still biased by settler colonialism displacing indigenous peoples and assuming pristine “nature”.
…Eventually, this regulation via the US Forest Service (under the Department of Agriculture; hint: commodification) became financially captured by the logging industry. Total fire suppression was implemented. Forests were converted to monocrop commodities: trees of the same age/species, with increased density (hint: increased fuel). All to maximize profits. Diverse forest ecologies became a tinderbox.
--As this is the US, everything is tied to war. Fire suppression was a priority in WWII to protect timber reserves. With the end of the Vietnam war, the arms industry sold explosives to the Forest Service: “instead of dropping the hotshots [wildland firefighters] in a meadow, they would bomb a hilltop and land in the crater” (can you get more American?!). Monsanto repackaged the infamous Agent Orange and sold it to the Forest Service as a herbicide: “Military veterans who joined Linane’s crew had the peculiar experience of watching familiar airplanes shower California’s mountains with the same biochemical weapons they had used to root out Viet Cong fighters.” (OK, you can get more American).
--The book skips over the decline of Industrial capitalism and rise of Finance capitalism, another fascinating story: The Global Minotaur: America, the True Origins of the Financial Crisis and the Future of the World Economy
…The book jumps to the effects: rise of privatization (The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism); this was paired with climate denialism (Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming) which later became climate delayism (The Climate Book: The Facts and the Solutions).
--The climate crisis ignited capitalism/colonization’s tinderbox, resulting in the new normal of uncontrolled fires that lack the regenerative effects of indigenous fires and further escalate the climate/ecological crises :
In the past two decades, wildfires have been doing things not even computer models can predict, environmental events that have scientists racking their brains for appropriately dystopian terminology: firenadoes, firestorms, gigafires, megafires. Scientists recently invented the term “megafire” to describe wildfires that behave in ways that would have been impossible just a generation ago, burning through winter, exploding in the night, and devastating landscapes historically impervious to incendiary destruction—like the sequoia groves of California. Sequoias are among the oldest organisms in existence, with fire-resistant bark several feet thick and crowns that can recover when 90 percent is scorched. They even rely on fire to reproduce, as flames crack their cones so seedlings can germinate. Now, the same ecological force they once depended upon is pushing them toward extinction.…Thus, the curious position of today’s wildland firefights: fire suppression has helped create the tinderbox, but we cannot let the tinderbox burn out of control.
Sequoias’ lives are monuments of deep time. Their death would signify something else. If we could not hold this ridge against the megafire, the sequoias would become the largest torches on earth, carrying flames higher than the Statue of Liberty. After three thousand years of life, they would become charred monuments to a passing era, symbols of a violent future.
…see comments below for rest of the review…
October 31, 2025
An incredibly complete look at wildfire - through history, politics, labor, indigenous sciences, and the cultures of what has become normal in our burning world. From an incredibly talented writer and story teller, I’m excited to see this book continuously spread across everyone’s reading list.
October 4, 2025
I learned a lot in this book and appreciated how he wove history into the story of wildfires. Also this is a book about worker's rights, capitalism, health care, climate change, colonialism, and I appreciated that a lot. I wish there had been more interrogation of gender and race. I also wish it was tonally a little more engaging.
May 24, 2025
By some measures, being a hotshot is among the most difficult jobs on earth. Hotshots don't just mountaineer; they mountaineer with chainsaws, and they do so in thick smoke, often in unprecedented heat, along the edges of the most extreme conflagrations in recorded history. In the mountains of California's Sierra Nevada range, hotshots sometimes train alongside Olympic athletes because their jobs require an equivalent level of tactical athleticism. They need to be able to hike for hours, cut line for miles, command helicopters and airplanes from their radios on the ground, and maintain a constant awareness of all the shifting conditions that could change the fire's spread. Their lives depend on these abilities. (loc. 364*)
In another life, I want to be a wildland firefighter. Not necessarily a hotshot or a smokejumper, and not this life—not when I'm busy doing other things and my knees are already too old to cooperate with me much of the time and I already know far too much about how little the US government thinks of the people doing this difficult, often precise, dangerous work. (Maybe in other countries it is better—quick, where are the wildland firefighting memoirs from Europe, Asia, Oceania?) But Thomas was a wildland firefighter, in this lifetime. A hotshot and also an academic, he was studying anthropology when he got interested in fire—fire, and firefighting, and the ways Native Americans used fire to manage the land, and the ways the colonizers weaponized that fire by criminalizing it, positioning nature as an adversary, creating conditions in which more and more flammable material built up, and humans could manage it less and less.
Thomas blends memoir with research here. The memoir part describes his season on a hotshot crew in one of the hottest years on record, one in which he and the rest of the crew battled blazes that would have been unimaginable to all but tuned-in scientists even fifty years ago. Thomas was the new guy on the crew—not new to wildland firefighting but new to being a hotshot (highly trained, the technicians of wildland firefighting), and struggling to learn his role as a sawyer and keep up and simply conceive of the scale of what they were doing. The research part of things digs deep into history and anthropology, from massacres of Native Americans to the continued devastation inflicted by loggers and politicians.
It's a hard read but a gripping one. I've read a lot of firefighting memoir (again: in another life...), so I was already familiar with a lot of the wtf moments (did you know that wildland firefighters are typically seasonal employees working on low pay and no benefits—meaning, crucially, no insurance if they're injured on the job? I did, but it makes me mad every time I read about it), but there's always something new to learn (did you know that a lot of fire retardant dumps are done—at great expense—to quell public outcry of "where are the planes?" rather than because it will actually be useful where it is being dumped? I did not!).
I've you've been thinking at all about fires and climate change recently, or fires and history, or climate change and history, this is a good one—one of the better books about fire that I've read. It slows down a little at the end (as expected, Thomas did not pursue a longer career as a hotshot), but it's full of fascinating, if often depressing, context and detail.
Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.
*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.
In another life, I want to be a wildland firefighter. Not necessarily a hotshot or a smokejumper, and not this life—not when I'm busy doing other things and my knees are already too old to cooperate with me much of the time and I already know far too much about how little the US government thinks of the people doing this difficult, often precise, dangerous work. (Maybe in other countries it is better—quick, where are the wildland firefighting memoirs from Europe, Asia, Oceania?) But Thomas was a wildland firefighter, in this lifetime. A hotshot and also an academic, he was studying anthropology when he got interested in fire—fire, and firefighting, and the ways Native Americans used fire to manage the land, and the ways the colonizers weaponized that fire by criminalizing it, positioning nature as an adversary, creating conditions in which more and more flammable material built up, and humans could manage it less and less.
Thomas blends memoir with research here. The memoir part describes his season on a hotshot crew in one of the hottest years on record, one in which he and the rest of the crew battled blazes that would have been unimaginable to all but tuned-in scientists even fifty years ago. Thomas was the new guy on the crew—not new to wildland firefighting but new to being a hotshot (highly trained, the technicians of wildland firefighting), and struggling to learn his role as a sawyer and keep up and simply conceive of the scale of what they were doing. The research part of things digs deep into history and anthropology, from massacres of Native Americans to the continued devastation inflicted by loggers and politicians.
It's a hard read but a gripping one. I've read a lot of firefighting memoir (again: in another life...), so I was already familiar with a lot of the wtf moments (did you know that wildland firefighters are typically seasonal employees working on low pay and no benefits—meaning, crucially, no insurance if they're injured on the job? I did, but it makes me mad every time I read about it), but there's always something new to learn (did you know that a lot of fire retardant dumps are done—at great expense—to quell public outcry of "where are the planes?" rather than because it will actually be useful where it is being dumped? I did not!).
I've you've been thinking at all about fires and climate change recently, or fires and history, or climate change and history, this is a good one—one of the better books about fire that I've read. It slows down a little at the end (as expected, Thomas did not pursue a longer career as a hotshot), but it's full of fascinating, if often depressing, context and detail.
Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.
*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.
May 9, 2025
While working on a graduate degree Jordan Thomas takes a break from research to understand fire better and joins the hotshots and battles wildfires for a season. He didn't put it this way, others and himself questioned why he wanted to join this elite firefighting team. One of his explanations was simply he needed money. But there are a ton of ways to earn money. Thomas was also interested in fire and wanted to understand it more thoroughly, and why not experience it by fighting it.
The book is not only about working as a US Forest Service Hotshot, it also delves into the history of fire and environmental changes being seen due to the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.
The book was a blend of personal story, history and more, but it also felt somewhat uneven. The history aspect turned into outrage against corporations, while it may be understood, it changed the tenor of the overall book.
It was fascinating to get an inside look at this dangerous job, that is being even more necessary as more of these firestorms and super-heated wildfires will increase in the coming years.
I listened to the audiobook version of this book, which was narrated by the author. Oftentimes author narrators don’t do this very well, but this was an exception and was well done.
Thanks to Penguin Group Riverhead and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book, and PRH Audio for advance access to the audiobook.
The book is not only about working as a US Forest Service Hotshot, it also delves into the history of fire and environmental changes being seen due to the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.
The book was a blend of personal story, history and more, but it also felt somewhat uneven. The history aspect turned into outrage against corporations, while it may be understood, it changed the tenor of the overall book.
It was fascinating to get an inside look at this dangerous job, that is being even more necessary as more of these firestorms and super-heated wildfires will increase in the coming years.
I listened to the audiobook version of this book, which was narrated by the author. Oftentimes author narrators don’t do this very well, but this was an exception and was well done.
Thanks to Penguin Group Riverhead and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book, and PRH Audio for advance access to the audiobook.
June 18, 2025
In 2021, anthropology PhD student Jordan Thomas took a break from his studies to take a seasonal job with an interagency hotshot crew (IHC), a specialized subset of government contractor firefighters trained to contain difficult wildfires using advanced techniques like controlled burning. The grueling six months Thomas spent with this crew, as well as eight years of research he's done on topics like indigenous burning practices, how climate change is dramatically amplifying wildfires, and the public vs. private sector economics of firefighting in the US today, led to this 2025 book, When It All Burns.
I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Thomas. This was an interesting read, and a nice complement to books on similar topics I've read recently like John Vaillant's 2023 Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World (about the devastating 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire in the Canadian province of Alberta) and Trina Moyles' 2021 memoir Lookout: Love, Solitude, and Searching for Wildfire in the Boreal Forest (about her multiple seasons spent working as a wildfire lookout in the isolated boreal forests of Alberta, spotting the first signs of wildfires so firefighting crews could be deployed to contain them). It's becoming increasingly difficult to escape the signs of the pyrocene (a term coined by historian Stephen Pyne to explain the increasingly fire-ravaged epoch we live in).
I'd recommend this book to folks interested in this topic, with a few caveats. First, there are many different narrative threads running throughout that weren't fully integrated (though that'd be difficult to do given the subject matter). Second, I had conflicted feelings about Thomas' viewpoint as an academic anthropologist coloring the narrative of his first-hand experiences as a hotshot firefighter, and the conclusions he drew about his fellow crew members. This came across starkly when he talked about firefighting basecamps set up for traveling firefighter crews, and how for many of his fellow hotshots, these were the biggest "cities" they'd ever inhabited, even if only temporarily. Our worldviews are heavily influenced by our sociocultural backgrounds and life experiences, and Thomas made it clear here that his perspectives were dramatically different than his crewmates'. For Thomas, this hotshot job was clearly always going to be a temporary gig and an experiment in immersive journalism (albeit with very real risks), but he's not truly inhabiting the reality and mindset of what it's like to do this dangerous job with few other viable prospects.
My statistics:
Book 182 for 2025
Book 2108 cumulatively
I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Thomas. This was an interesting read, and a nice complement to books on similar topics I've read recently like John Vaillant's 2023 Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World (about the devastating 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire in the Canadian province of Alberta) and Trina Moyles' 2021 memoir Lookout: Love, Solitude, and Searching for Wildfire in the Boreal Forest (about her multiple seasons spent working as a wildfire lookout in the isolated boreal forests of Alberta, spotting the first signs of wildfires so firefighting crews could be deployed to contain them). It's becoming increasingly difficult to escape the signs of the pyrocene (a term coined by historian Stephen Pyne to explain the increasingly fire-ravaged epoch we live in).
I'd recommend this book to folks interested in this topic, with a few caveats. First, there are many different narrative threads running throughout that weren't fully integrated (though that'd be difficult to do given the subject matter). Second, I had conflicted feelings about Thomas' viewpoint as an academic anthropologist coloring the narrative of his first-hand experiences as a hotshot firefighter, and the conclusions he drew about his fellow crew members. This came across starkly when he talked about firefighting basecamps set up for traveling firefighter crews, and how for many of his fellow hotshots, these were the biggest "cities" they'd ever inhabited, even if only temporarily. Our worldviews are heavily influenced by our sociocultural backgrounds and life experiences, and Thomas made it clear here that his perspectives were dramatically different than his crewmates'. For Thomas, this hotshot job was clearly always going to be a temporary gig and an experiment in immersive journalism (albeit with very real risks), but he's not truly inhabiting the reality and mindset of what it's like to do this dangerous job with few other viable prospects.
My statistics:
Book 182 for 2025
Book 2108 cumulatively
May 30, 2025
I preordered When It All Burns because I was genuinely excited by the premise a firefighter-anthropologist writing about climate change, Indigenous land practices, and life on the front lines of wildfire. It seemed like a rare opportunity to get both lived experience and critical insight.
Unfortunately, the book didn’t deliver on that promise. While it includes vivid descriptions of fire season and some important critiques of fire management policy, it often feels scattered. The narrative jumps between memoir, analysis, and philosophical reflection, but never quite ties those threads together in a meaningful way. Frustratingly, the book doesnt really add anything to the broader conversation. I felt like I've read this before.
Worse, the author draws on the intensity and trauma of frontline firefighting, but ultimately seems more interested in using that experience as a platform than really reckoning with what it means. It left me feeling like he missed the emotional and cultural depth of the story he was trying to tell.
The book feels more like a personal brand exercise than a contribution to the conversation. Disappointed.
Unfortunately, the book didn’t deliver on that promise. While it includes vivid descriptions of fire season and some important critiques of fire management policy, it often feels scattered. The narrative jumps between memoir, analysis, and philosophical reflection, but never quite ties those threads together in a meaningful way. Frustratingly, the book doesnt really add anything to the broader conversation. I felt like I've read this before.
Worse, the author draws on the intensity and trauma of frontline firefighting, but ultimately seems more interested in using that experience as a platform than really reckoning with what it means. It left me feeling like he missed the emotional and cultural depth of the story he was trying to tell.
The book feels more like a personal brand exercise than a contribution to the conversation. Disappointed.
January 17, 2025
One of the most empathetic, well-researched, informative, enraging (pardon the pun), engaging, and sensitive books I've ever read. Jordan is such an elegant and beautiful writer; I was moved to tears several times over the course of this book.
I learned so much about indigenous burning practices/fire stewardship in When It All Burns. I also learned about how much colonization, genocide, and corporate greed directly led to the immensely destructive fires we're seeing in California today. This isn't even a mere suggestion--when we read our history and talk to indigenous communities, we can understand exactly what is going on.
We cannot keep letting billionaires and climate change deniers keep getting away with spreading misinformation and destroying our planet. I hope many, many people read this book and that it stirs something inside them.
I learned so much about indigenous burning practices/fire stewardship in When It All Burns. I also learned about how much colonization, genocide, and corporate greed directly led to the immensely destructive fires we're seeing in California today. This isn't even a mere suggestion--when we read our history and talk to indigenous communities, we can understand exactly what is going on.
We cannot keep letting billionaires and climate change deniers keep getting away with spreading misinformation and destroying our planet. I hope many, many people read this book and that it stirs something inside them.
June 27, 2025
In his afterword, Jordan Thomas states: "The fires are going to come, but our political choices will shape how they burn." and I think that aptly sums up the driving point of this book. Jordan Thomas is an anthropologist and former "hotshot" firefighter. He spent months fighting some of the fiercest fires this country has seen and shares those experiences in the first second, and third parts of this book. The fourth part primarily focuses on his experiences after, when he went back into academia and began an even deeper research on the ways fire is an integral part of life, society, and culture--especially in the western US.
I learned a lot through reading this book and I genuinely enjoyed all of it. Modern issues and events aren't things I typically dive into, but I'm learning to appreciate them more and more. This didn't read wildly academic either, which made it more engaging while keeping it easy for readers to digest. Highly recommend.
I learned a lot through reading this book and I genuinely enjoyed all of it. Modern issues and events aren't things I typically dive into, but I'm learning to appreciate them more and more. This didn't read wildly academic either, which made it more engaging while keeping it easy for readers to digest. Highly recommend.
August 31, 2025
Read this for a story at work and forgot to review it here but it is actually so good I would’ve read it for fun! It reads like an action novel while also expertly talking about very complicated issues
February 5, 2026
Really great read about fire fighting in california. crazy to me that to stop fires we actually need to use controlled burns. i also always love hearing bout first responders.
August 23, 2026
From anthropology grad student to hotshot firefighter: I so enjoyed Jordan Thomas’ intimate view of what it actually means to be on the front lines of wildfire during one of California’s biggest fire years, woven with relevant info from his own research. And a good reminder we don’t necessarily need more tech to tackle climate change - we got to trust and fund those on the ground. How can firefighters not earn a living wage, or not have health insurance??
June 1, 2026
Knew nothing about fires really before— super interesting mix of first hand fighting fires and also the rich history behind forestry, fires, and climate. Everything comes back to racism as always ofc
July 17, 2025
✨4 stars✨
Memoir, autobiography, fact, research…Interesting
Memoir, autobiography, fact, research…Interesting
July 14, 2026
I had high hopes for this book, but I was a little bit disappointed. Though it was well written, the “connections”/references to Swedish farming practices, the Industrial Revolution, and things like that didn’t really add a lot to the story for me and didn’t seem entirely relevant. I was hoping for more of a memoir rather than global history and fire management lessons.
February 2, 2026
this was just fascinating, relevant, and it felt really thoughtful in the way it approached this conversation. Highly recommend
February 2, 2026
First 5 star in a while. I normally try hard to only reserve 5 stars for books unreal books that I recommend to anyone. This book was just much better than the 4s I have been reading lately.
The author is a PHD who becomes one of the toughest jobs in the world, so the writing and experience are one of a kind. Also then goes into environmental science and native peoples which was unexpected but welcome.
Great visual cues language and really took me out of the NYC subway where I listened to most of the book.
The author is a PHD who becomes one of the toughest jobs in the world, so the writing and experience are one of a kind. Also then goes into environmental science and native peoples which was unexpected but welcome.
Great visual cues language and really took me out of the NYC subway where I listened to most of the book.
June 5, 2025
I went into When It All Burns - written by Jordan Thomas, who spent a year fighting wildfires with the Los Padres hotshots - expecting a book about fighting wildfires in the age of climate change. And it is that, but it's also more. This feels like multiple books in one, and all are timely and urgent.
Partly, it's a history of America's relationship with fire, from the Indigenous tribes who used fire to cultivate and steward their lands to the rise of fire suppression and the growth of the wildfire industrial complex. It's also a behind-the-scenes look at the lives of wildland firefighters - the grueling work and long days, the low pay and lack of health insurance, the macho culture, and the troubling incentive structure that leads firefighters to hope for more wildfires just to make ends meet. (Not to mention they're barely scraping by while often risking their lives to protect the property of the wealthy.) And finally, it's an exploration of how climate change and extractive capitalism have given rise to a new breed of wildfires - fires that are more intense, more destructive, and harder to predict.
This book gave me a lot to think about. Thomas doesn't hide his point of view, but he's careful to consider opposing perspectives and acknowledge areas of uncertainty. As an environmentalist, I found parts of this book uncomfortable. It turns out fighting modern fires often requires using vast amounts of energy, cutting down trees, and setting additional fires. It's jarring, but a (hopefully temporary) response to decades of mismanagement of our land - harm that Thomas and others are working to combat through a more balanced, restorative approach to fire.
This is a book that infuriated me, saddened me, and sometimes challenged my views. It also left me more committed than ever to fighting for climate and environmental causes, and may have set a personal record for tabbed pages (I'm not usually that person!). With wildfire season - if "season" is still a meaningful term - already underway, this feels like an important read.
*thank you to Riverhead Books for sending an ARC in exchange for an honest review
Partly, it's a history of America's relationship with fire, from the Indigenous tribes who used fire to cultivate and steward their lands to the rise of fire suppression and the growth of the wildfire industrial complex. It's also a behind-the-scenes look at the lives of wildland firefighters - the grueling work and long days, the low pay and lack of health insurance, the macho culture, and the troubling incentive structure that leads firefighters to hope for more wildfires just to make ends meet. (Not to mention they're barely scraping by while often risking their lives to protect the property of the wealthy.) And finally, it's an exploration of how climate change and extractive capitalism have given rise to a new breed of wildfires - fires that are more intense, more destructive, and harder to predict.
This book gave me a lot to think about. Thomas doesn't hide his point of view, but he's careful to consider opposing perspectives and acknowledge areas of uncertainty. As an environmentalist, I found parts of this book uncomfortable. It turns out fighting modern fires often requires using vast amounts of energy, cutting down trees, and setting additional fires. It's jarring, but a (hopefully temporary) response to decades of mismanagement of our land - harm that Thomas and others are working to combat through a more balanced, restorative approach to fire.
This is a book that infuriated me, saddened me, and sometimes challenged my views. It also left me more committed than ever to fighting for climate and environmental causes, and may have set a personal record for tabbed pages (I'm not usually that person!). With wildfire season - if "season" is still a meaningful term - already underway, this feels like an important read.
*thank you to Riverhead Books for sending an ARC in exchange for an honest review
August 24, 2025
oh it’s so good. this is everything i’ve ever wanted in a book ab wildfires. he’s got climate change talk without giving me a panic attack, he’s got prescribed burns (!!!!), he’s got experience as a hotshot firefighters, he’s got history of fire, he’s got indigenous insights. it’s perfect!!! jordan thomas, i love you. did i cry while listening to this? maybe! did it make me think for a moment that i could be a hotshot firefighter? who knows! anyway. this was epic. i recommend to literally everyone. this is The Wildfire Book imo
ps what am i supposed to do now
ps what am i supposed to do now
May 4, 2026
My family lost our home in the Palisades/Malibu firestorm last year, and I've been tearing through books and articles on wildfires since to make sense of why everything happened to try to make peace with it, and also to educate myself further. I grew up in SoCal my whole life; wildfires are nothing new and my town had partially burnt down three times by the time I turned 18. That being said, I selfishly didn't look to educate myself on what was going on in my own backyard until it was gone.
This book has been one of the first to truly let me understand the history, science, ecology, and politics of why wildfires are what they are today—with a little bit of hope to soften the blow of the reality we're in. The narrative Thomas weaves with his own experiences and factual information from multiple perspectives really gives a great scope to the whole situation, making mega and wildfires a more tangible phenomena to me rather than an unknown beast that sometimes bares its fangs. Learning about how fire prevention is so many things was fascinating. Thomas really focuses on prescription burns, which used to be how the indigenous peoples of California maintained the forests, and how their indigenous descendants are trying to bring it back with the help of fire and forest personnel. If you ever see any measures to vote on prescription burns or have an opportunity to support them, do it.
I'm thankful to be able to put this book down not only with more knowledge of fires, but also with more hope and direction for this glaring issue that's not going away anytime soon.
This book has been one of the first to truly let me understand the history, science, ecology, and politics of why wildfires are what they are today—with a little bit of hope to soften the blow of the reality we're in. The narrative Thomas weaves with his own experiences and factual information from multiple perspectives really gives a great scope to the whole situation, making mega and wildfires a more tangible phenomena to me rather than an unknown beast that sometimes bares its fangs. Learning about how fire prevention is so many things was fascinating. Thomas really focuses on prescription burns, which used to be how the indigenous peoples of California maintained the forests, and how their indigenous descendants are trying to bring it back with the help of fire and forest personnel. If you ever see any measures to vote on prescription burns or have an opportunity to support them, do it.
I'm thankful to be able to put this book down not only with more knowledge of fires, but also with more hope and direction for this glaring issue that's not going away anytime soon.
December 21, 2025
THIS WAS SO GOOD. 😱
I loved listening to his narrative experience wrapped up in indigenous relationships with the land. He was perfectly respectful of all people and viewpoints. Indigenous people, loggers, the political right, the political left, conservationists, the poor… all respected. Anyone can be friends with Jordan.
From the first page (where he acknowledges that he is not an indigenous person) until the last he maintains that the indigenous traditions with fire are where we should start. This works as a great companion to any Robin Wall Kimmerer book. Give to the land as it gives to us—fire is part of that reciprocity. I had no idea how much fire suppression was wrapped up in indigenous genocide and colonization, either. Whew.
I learned so much and as a conservationist (whose uncle led the fight on the famous Yellowstone fire years ago) changed my understanding and therefore my opinions of how we respond to and use fire. I especially increased my appreciation for those working to understand fire and fight fires. The work of the Hot Shots is not something I knew anything about and my heart grew ten sizes for these men and their sacrifices.
I’m so grateful I randomly picked this one up after seeing it in the library. The audio is fabulous. Everyone listen to it! I loved this book!!
I loved listening to his narrative experience wrapped up in indigenous relationships with the land. He was perfectly respectful of all people and viewpoints. Indigenous people, loggers, the political right, the political left, conservationists, the poor… all respected. Anyone can be friends with Jordan.
From the first page (where he acknowledges that he is not an indigenous person) until the last he maintains that the indigenous traditions with fire are where we should start. This works as a great companion to any Robin Wall Kimmerer book. Give to the land as it gives to us—fire is part of that reciprocity. I had no idea how much fire suppression was wrapped up in indigenous genocide and colonization, either. Whew.
I learned so much and as a conservationist (whose uncle led the fight on the famous Yellowstone fire years ago) changed my understanding and therefore my opinions of how we respond to and use fire. I especially increased my appreciation for those working to understand fire and fight fires. The work of the Hot Shots is not something I knew anything about and my heart grew ten sizes for these men and their sacrifices.
I’m so grateful I randomly picked this one up after seeing it in the library. The audio is fabulous. Everyone listen to it! I loved this book!!
August 12, 2026
Part memoir serving as a hot shot in mega fires, and part historical account of the use and misuse of fire from ancient cultures to today. This is well researched and is an interesting read. The changing between memoir and historical account works well.
Disclaimer: I did experience a “mega fire” ( before they were called that) in the fall of 1970. I was 9. Eastern San Diego county was ablaze. Almost all fires were in the fall when the winds blew from the desert in the east towards the ocean. One night I could see a trail of fire descending the mountain we passed on our way to church. We lived on the eastern most part of the San Diego city limits, surrounded by suburbs. I started packing. We never needed to evacuate but I was planning a route. Complicating matters were that my Dad was overseas in the South Pacific with the Navy and ash was falling from the pink sky. It was a huge fire but not as frequent or devastating as the mega fires today.
Disclaimer: I did experience a “mega fire” ( before they were called that) in the fall of 1970. I was 9. Eastern San Diego county was ablaze. Almost all fires were in the fall when the winds blew from the desert in the east towards the ocean. One night I could see a trail of fire descending the mountain we passed on our way to church. We lived on the eastern most part of the San Diego city limits, surrounded by suburbs. I started packing. We never needed to evacuate but I was planning a route. Complicating matters were that my Dad was overseas in the South Pacific with the Navy and ash was falling from the pink sky. It was a huge fire but not as frequent or devastating as the mega fires today.
September 2, 2026
Seems like the worst guy you know at your small liberal arts college.
Informative and all the connections between fire and capitalism, oppression, etc. were great and enlightening, but strongly disliked how he wrote about his coworkers. A little more empathy perhaps. Centered himself too much. Confusingly written with lots of jumping around. Would’ve felt more authentic coming from someone who has spent more time in the fire world than him. Or maybe I just would’ve rather read a book by an ecologist, biased!
Informative and all the connections between fire and capitalism, oppression, etc. were great and enlightening, but strongly disliked how he wrote about his coworkers. A little more empathy perhaps. Centered himself too much. Confusingly written with lots of jumping around. Would’ve felt more authentic coming from someone who has spent more time in the fire world than him. Or maybe I just would’ve rather read a book by an ecologist, biased!
September 14, 2026
This book was incredible. It goes into the histories of the fires on the west coast and how indigenous peoples managed the forests with controlled burns, their genocide, and how it effects the wildfires in the west today along with climate change.
In addition to facts and science, the author's story while he was a part of the hotshots was action-packed and filled with a strong sense of family. So much so that I could envision this book being made into a movie (based on a true story) with some added drama perhaps but a great source of information and environmental education.
This book makes you think about the details of things that most would otherwise not know much about.
If you're curious as to what's up with the worsening of wild fires in the western United States and are concerned about climate change, you need to read this book.
In addition to facts and science, the author's story while he was a part of the hotshots was action-packed and filled with a strong sense of family. So much so that I could envision this book being made into a movie (based on a true story) with some added drama perhaps but a great source of information and environmental education.
This book makes you think about the details of things that most would otherwise not know much about.
If you're curious as to what's up with the worsening of wild fires in the western United States and are concerned about climate change, you need to read this book.
October 9, 2026
took me longer than expected, but i finished this book! i’d def recommend it to people interested in nature and U.S. politics. it’s a mixture of a) action-packed fire fighting and b) a history lesson on indigenous fire practices, how the U.S. got rid of them, and how folks are working to bring them back. i didn’t find this book as interesting as my usual books about fires, but it’ll def impact how i think about wildfires and fire suppression going forward. i’m already having related discussions w my friends about profit-motivated logging practices and how they impact an ecosystem. woo!
November 13, 2025
What a fantastic read! Jordan does such a great job of presenting multifaceted views of how and why today's megafires have developed and the experience of fighting them as a hotshot for a year. As an anthropologist he details how colonization, genocide, corporate logging and the criminalization of indigenous burning practices have caused a diseased environment that is prone to fires and megafires. Thankfully, the book ends somewhat hopefully with a chapter about the revival of indigenous burning practices being taught to federal and state forest and fire professionals.
April 12, 2026
I wish I liked this book more. My main frustration is most of the book is history of fire and fire maintenance practices when I was expecting more memoir of CA wildfire firefighters. Somehow we were taken from firefighting in present day California to 1800s Swedish farming practices, the Industrial Revolution, and then to American colonialism and more. It was a bit all over the place, and the writing was good, but… he was a firefighter for one season so this was not the main focus. He speaks with a lot of authority for a job he did for a season, and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that.
March 30, 2026
Love an anthropological lens on a pervasive current issue. Fascinating to read about the front line of fire fighting mixed in with the ecology and politics of how we got here.
September 11, 2025
Edit: 5 stars. I thought about it and it’s too much of a banger.
Jordan Thomas gives a great amount of care to the subject of fire suppression and climate change, and the way he weaves it with his own personal experience fighting California wildfires is extremely entertaining and immersive. I learned a lot from this book and I highly recommend it.
Jordan Thomas gives a great amount of care to the subject of fire suppression and climate change, and the way he weaves it with his own personal experience fighting California wildfires is extremely entertaining and immersive. I learned a lot from this book and I highly recommend it.
June 29, 2025
Just the right balance of hotshot crew storytelling and researched ecological and indigenous history all related to forestry and megafires, prescribed burns, and how California and the western US is intimately bound up with fire.
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