Wildfire: On The Front Lines With Station 8

Here is an outstanding book by journalist Heather Hansen that most readers will thoroughly enjoy. Wildfire is all about the fascinating and scary subject of wild forest fires. Hansen is a superb writer with an easy-to-read writing style, and this is a true page-turner–though it’s so detailed that many readers may skip pages. Hansen is not an armchair-research journalist—besides thoroughly researching her subject, she experienced most aspects of wildfire not only from fire station offices and fire research labs but in the field with firefighters, taking part in fire patrols and firefighting. What she did will amaze readers. She has even undertaken part of the firefighters’ vigorous fitness program and done practical fire training, including a grueling “pack” endurance test. Much of her material comes from Station Eight, City of Boulder, Wild Fire Division and the Missoula Fire Science Lab. The information she provides is fascinating. We learn about things such as the chinook wind that makes firefighting nearly impossible, fire that behaves like fluid, high-end thermometers, and the wind tunnels and high-speed cameras used to understand fire. She describes in detail several monumental fires and how they were fought. The book is also filled with interviews.