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Wildfire: On the Front Lines with Station 8
Every year wildfires ravage forests, destroy communities, and devastate human lives, with only the bravery of dedicated firefighters creating a barrier against even greater destruction. Throughout the 2016 wildfire season, journalist Heather Hansen witnessed firsthand the heroics of the Station 8 crew in Boulder, Colorado. She tells that story here, layered with the added context of the history, science, landscape, and human behavior that, year-by-year, increases the severity, frequency, and costs of conflagrations in the West. She examines the changes in both mindset and activity around wildfires and tracks the movement from wildfire as something useful, to something feared, to something necessary but roundly dreaded.
Wildfire shares the drama, hardships, and experiences of the firefighters who try, sometimes in vain, to prevent destruction when a spark flares out of control. Hansen tells the rich and frightening stories of the firefighters themselves and the challenges they face: a safety system struggling to keep up with fire seasons that are lengthening, fires that are becoming more extreme, and agencies that are struggling to cover the bills.
Wildfire shares the drama, hardships, and experiences of the firefighters who try, sometimes in vain, to prevent destruction when a spark flares out of control. Hansen tells the rich and frightening stories of the firefighters themselves and the challenges they face: a safety system struggling to keep up with fire seasons that are lengthening, fires that are becoming more extreme, and agencies that are struggling to cover the bills.
320 pages, Paperback
Published March 1, 2018
29 people are currently reading
336 people want to read
About the author
Heather Hansen
4 books7 followersI am a science geek, history buff, travel nut, lover of public lands and of a great story. I write often about human interaction with the natural world. My writing has appeared in newspapers and magazines from San Francisco to Johannesburg.
I am also the author of the award-winning book Prophets and Moguls, Rangers and Rogues, Bison and Bears: 100 Years of the National Park Service. And co-author of the acclaimed book Disappearing Destinations: 37 Places in Peril and What Can Be Done to Help Save Them.
Most recently I spent nearly two years looking at wildfire from the inside out with the City of Boulder Wildland Fire Crew, and other experts. During that time I became a certified wildland firefighter, a blistering process. The result is a narrative that looks at the bigger, more destructive and costlier fires which are now the norm.
Wildfire: On the Front Lines With Station 8 also explores our relationship with wildfire and talks about how that needs to change going forward to preserve human lives, property and the environment.
I am also the author of the award-winning book Prophets and Moguls, Rangers and Rogues, Bison and Bears: 100 Years of the National Park Service. And co-author of the acclaimed book Disappearing Destinations: 37 Places in Peril and What Can Be Done to Help Save Them.
Most recently I spent nearly two years looking at wildfire from the inside out with the City of Boulder Wildland Fire Crew, and other experts. During that time I became a certified wildland firefighter, a blistering process. The result is a narrative that looks at the bigger, more destructive and costlier fires which are now the norm.
Wildfire: On the Front Lines With Station 8 also explores our relationship with wildfire and talks about how that needs to change going forward to preserve human lives, property and the environment.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
April 10, 2018
WILD FIRE: On the Front Lines with Station 8 by Heather Hansen is exactly the book we've needed for a long time and will come to need even more, unfortunately, to understand the complex relationships between climate change and wildfires, and between firefighters and those who need them to save their land and homes. After reading Hansen's riveting history of the National Park Service, PROPHETS AND MOGULS, RANGERS AND ROGUES, BISON AND BEARS, I was eager to read this book. Hansen's characteristically thorough research into the science of wildfires brilliantly establishes her credibility, very much enhanced by her eventual certification as a wildland firefighter. The writing is so highly imaged, compelling, and beautiful that I couldn't put this book down. Hansen's close-up-and-personal view of working with Boulder, Colorado firefighters on the Cold Springs Fire of 2016 will singe your upraised eyebrows with searing fear, insight, and awe.
July 4, 2018
Really really solid research about wildfires in this country. Why we must learn to live with them as the wildfire season gets longer because of climate change. Why pure suppression is not an option. Why thinning does not always work. And what those badass wildlife firefighters do. And I learned a new term--WUI! Wildlife Urban Interface. People build houses in the woods. Woods burn, and it's a scary thing. And a lot of new thoughts for me. Another way people are encroaching on the wilderness and what that means. How firefighters must choose how much to risk their own lives to save property. And here comes July and August and September, the 2018 fires will probably soon begin.
May 22, 2018
I purchased this through Amazon. After reading the book I was inspired to finally write a review on GoodReads.
I found Wildfire easy to pick up and deeply engaging thanks in part to the author's narrative style (which worked quite well for me.) In particular, I enjoyed Part 2 as the author covered the Cold Spring Fire. Having only ever heard of wildfires on the news, I found the detailed account and aftermath of the fire to be utterly fascinating. For both the first hand experience as well as the detailed history, I would highly recommend this read to anyone (like me) interested in and inexperienced with the topic.
I found Wildfire easy to pick up and deeply engaging thanks in part to the author's narrative style (which worked quite well for me.) In particular, I enjoyed Part 2 as the author covered the Cold Spring Fire. Having only ever heard of wildfires on the news, I found the detailed account and aftermath of the fire to be utterly fascinating. For both the first hand experience as well as the detailed history, I would highly recommend this read to anyone (like me) interested in and inexperienced with the topic.
May 11, 2018
Outstanding book! Hansen’s writing is smooth and engaging. Her extensive research is apparent both from the varied sources she references, but even more, in the way she seamlessly weaves historical information with personal stories, fire science, politics and public opinion.
I particularly appreciated Hansen's well-rounded description of the firefighters she spent time with. She portrays them not just as heroes, but as human—with all the flaws and quirks of real people who have skills, superstitions and families to go home to at the end of a very long shift. I feel like I know and care about the Station 8 crew.
As I expected when I picked up the book, WILDFIRE caused me to rethink my assumptions about fire, have more respect for it, and even to appreciate the good it can do. But what I learned about fire behavior and wildfire mitigation has stuck with me. I find myself listening to NPR stories about wildfires more carefully. Despite the fact that I’m not in a fire-prone area, my own yard looks different to me now that I understand the importance of having a defensible space around my home.
More people need to read this book. And then we need to do more than talk. We need to act. There’s so much knowledge out there and this book pulls it together in a clear and comprehensive way.
The book also includes gorgeous photographs in the front and back cover.
I particularly appreciated Hansen's well-rounded description of the firefighters she spent time with. She portrays them not just as heroes, but as human—with all the flaws and quirks of real people who have skills, superstitions and families to go home to at the end of a very long shift. I feel like I know and care about the Station 8 crew.
As I expected when I picked up the book, WILDFIRE caused me to rethink my assumptions about fire, have more respect for it, and even to appreciate the good it can do. But what I learned about fire behavior and wildfire mitigation has stuck with me. I find myself listening to NPR stories about wildfires more carefully. Despite the fact that I’m not in a fire-prone area, my own yard looks different to me now that I understand the importance of having a defensible space around my home.
More people need to read this book. And then we need to do more than talk. We need to act. There’s so much knowledge out there and this book pulls it together in a clear and comprehensive way.
The book also includes gorgeous photographs in the front and back cover.
May 10, 2018
As a former National Park Service firefighter, Park Ranger and a longtime Colorado resident, I find that Heather Hansen's writing resonates and rings true. Her thorough journalistic approach means that we get to learn an enormous amount of interesting information. Her strong work ethic, integrity, and dedication to getting the science and history right make for important reading. "Wildfire: On the Front Line with Station 8" takes us up close and personal with wildland firefighters and the fire itself. Heather Hansen is an award-winning science and travel-writer. We are lucky to have her commitment to her craft.
May 11, 2018
Well written and well researched book. Should be required reading for anyone purchasing a home or building or thinking about living in areas prone to wild fires.
July 20, 2018
Wow --- everyone, especially those living in the western part of the US should read this book. Riveting and important information about what we're doing with our lands and the billions of dollars that are being wasted in foolish Canute-style endeavors to "fight" nature.
June 28, 2023
Americans have grown a bit cavalier about the word hero. Anyone and everyone who does something good, anyone and everyone who does an act of service or kindness gets the label. Teachers. Nurses. Even the cashier who agrees not to ring something up when the barcode isn't working. "You're my hero," the patron calls them. But as a child, and even now, as a middle-aged adult, I've always defined "hero" as "someone with an abundance of courage in the act of saving someone else's life." We even have a brand of iconic supernatural heroes who are only "super" because their skills in saving others are beyond this normal world. I'm not saying that teachers or nurses or cashiers don't ever do courageous things. I'm saying, even as a teacher myself, that my work doesn't even come close to the heroic nature of smokejumpers and hotshots, those who regularly fly into and run toward a wildfire, those whose work involves diverting a part of nature that doesn't want to be diverted, a part of nature that will fight back. Those are heroes. And Heather Hansen does a phenomenal job of making it clear that after everything we know they do, everything they put their bodies through, even wildland firefighters don't like the moniker of hero.
While it's not a comfortable or easy book to get through, the level of careful, well-accounted research that adorns every page makes you long for the same level of thoroughness from every other person who claims to be a journalist. Hansen is precisely that, fully embedded, following every rabbit trail to every corner of the nation, talking to and analyzing every person who has anything to do with (or any significance in the fighting of) wildfires. And if you don't come out of the final page more informed, more conscious of the risks that come with living and setting up communities in the middle of nature, the responsibility we have to work with nature, not ignore it, then you weren't reading.
While it's not a comfortable or easy book to get through, the level of careful, well-accounted research that adorns every page makes you long for the same level of thoroughness from every other person who claims to be a journalist. Hansen is precisely that, fully embedded, following every rabbit trail to every corner of the nation, talking to and analyzing every person who has anything to do with (or any significance in the fighting of) wildfires. And if you don't come out of the final page more informed, more conscious of the risks that come with living and setting up communities in the middle of nature, the responsibility we have to work with nature, not ignore it, then you weren't reading.
August 28, 2018
DNF As my friend Jamie said, this one hits a little too close to home. We both experienced the Cold Springs Fire and have seen numerous other wildfires around Colorado. I've live in Colorado since 1993 and moved to the Sugarloaf area which was affected by the Black Tiger Fire in 1989. Since then, fire mitigation has been pushed for homeowners in that urban/forest interface rather relentlessly so I am very familiar with the issues surrounding wild fires and homeowners living in the mountains. The one thing I did learn was that the Black Tiger Fire was considered the first "big" wildfire in Colorado. By comparison to today's fires, it was relatively small. Now just 29 years later, big wildfires are pretty much to be expected.
August 20, 2018
Living in a fireprone western state, I knew this book would be instructive ans interesting to me. I've always been supportive of the prescribed burn philosophy. Now I understand the challenges these agencies face when trying to implement one. By presenting from the perspective of the firefghters by working with the Station 8 team, it becomes much more understandable not just how but why mitigation efforts on EVERYONE'S part are so critical. For those living in the WUI, it can mean the difference between a burned hime and not, for you and your neighbors!
July 6, 2018
My interest in this book is personal: both my husband and son have been wildland firefighters, both federally and statewide. I’ve heard the terminology regarding fire as long as I’ve been married. The author has done a great job providing both background information and the personal stories of the individuals who work on the City of Boulder Wildland Fire Division, Station 8. Well done.
August 18, 2025
Honestly a lot of books about wildfires get repetitive because they explain wildfire for normies and that gets old. Hansen does a great job at it though, and her stories about the boulder crew are solid. I think she’s a little silly for essentially using her wildland status to go on an active incident she wasn’t tasked with working.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 7, 2019
a touch draggy but a very good and somewhat terrifying examination of
(1) managing fire in the wildland-urban interface that is my own goddamn backyard,
(2) a fire i personally witnessed and fled, and
(3) an issue very close to my job.
<333
(1) managing fire in the wildland-urban interface that is my own goddamn backyard,
(2) a fire i personally witnessed and fled, and
(3) an issue very close to my job.
<333
September 29, 2020
Great insight into the history of fires in the West and what goes into modern day wildfire fighting. Gave me a lot more insight into what is going on behind the scenes with incident reports and updates. Highly recommended.
August 9, 2018
Stop building houses in areas prone to fire. Wildland firefighters deserve our gratitude.
January 31, 2021
Very detailed journalistic account of fire science taking into account skills, training and dangers of wildlife firefighting.
November 24, 2021
A very informative perspective on the past, present, and future of forest fires.
March 20, 2023
Very informative but incredibly dense and hard to get through at times.
August 17, 2018
Well-researched, well-written, and mostly interesting. I wasn't too engaged with the long-ago history, but recent events were interesting and I thought the fire lab chapter was pretty cool.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews