“In Fernanda Santos’ expert hands, the story of 19 men and a raging wildfire unfolds as a riveting, pulse-pounding account of an American tragedy; and also as a meditation on manhood, brotherhood and family love. The Fire Line is a great and deeply moving book about courageous men and women.” - Héctor Tobar, author of Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine and the Miracle that Set Them Free. When a bolt of lightning ignited a hilltop in the sleepy town of Yarnell, Arizona, in June of 2013, setting off a blaze that would grow into one of the deadliest fires in American history, the twenty men who made up the Granite Mountain Hotshots sprang into action. An elite crew trained to combat the most challenging wildfires, the Granite Mountain Hotshots were a ragtag family, crisscrossing the American West and wherever else the fires took them. The Hotshots were loyal to one another and dedicated to the tough job they had. There's Eric Marsh, their devoted and demanding superintendent who turned his own personal demons into lessons he used to mold, train and guide his crew; Jesse Steed, their captain, a former Marine, a beast on the fire line and a family man who wasn’t afraid to say “I love you” to the firemen he led; Andrew Ashcraft, a team leader still in his 20s who struggled to balance his love for his beautiful wife and four children and his passion for fighting wildfires. We see this band of brothers at work, at play and at home, until a fire that burned in their own backyards leads to a national tragedy. Impeccably researched, drawing upon more than a hundred hours of interviews with the firefighters’ families, colleagues, state and federal officials, and fire historians and researchers, New York Times Phoenix Bureau Chief Fernanda Santos has written a riveting, pulse-pounding narrative of an unthinkable disaster, a remarkable group of men and the raging wildfires that threaten our country’s treasured wild lands. The Fire Line is the winner of the 2017 Spur Award for Best First Nonfiction Book, and Spur Award Finalist for Best Western Contemporary Nonfiction.

In this rugged account of a rugged profession, Matthew Desmond explores the heart and soul of the wildland firefighter. Having joined a firecrew in Northern Arizona as a young man, Desmond relates his experiences with intimate knowledge and native ease, adroitly balancing emotion with analysis and action with insight. On the Fireline shows that these firefighters aren’t the adrenaline junkies or romantic heroes as they’re so often portrayed. An immersion into a dangerous world, On the Fireline is also a sophisticated analysis of a high-risk profession—and a captivating read. “Gripping . . . a masterful account of how young men are able to face down wildfire, and why they volunteer for such an enterprise in the first place.”—David Grazian, Sociological Forum “Along with the risks and sorrow, Desmond also presents the humor and comaraderie of ordinary men performing extraordinary tasks. . . . A good complement to Norman Maclean's Young Men and Fire. Recommended.”—Library Journal

Fire Line looks at the entire world of Western wildfire, with a strong, human-interest focus on the self-described adventurers and adrenaline junkies who go to battle in the West's annual summer war. Although its viewpoint is contemporary, it also deals with the historical backdrop of forest fire. Both rural and urban in scope, it covers wilderness fires that rage in such places as Alaska and Yellowstone National Park to the "urban interface" fires that sweep out of the mountains and into neighborhoods in such places as Los Angeles and Oakland, California. For generations, fighting fire in the forest has been a Western rite of passage. Almost everyone who lives in the West knows someone who has done it - a neighbor, a friend, a co-worker, a college roommate, a son, or these days, a daughter. The region is home to tens of thousands of adults who have had this experience. Those who go to battle against wildfire range from college students to Native American crews to perennial fire bums. Seasonal combatants led by full-time professionals, they work in a little-understood, paramilitary world that is America's version of the French Foreign Legion. In their annual campaigns, daring pilots dive into flaming canyons with retardant tanker planes. Smokejumpers leap into rugged wilderness regions. "Hotshots", the shock troops of wildland fire, take on giant conflagrations.

The true story behind the events that inspired the major motion picture Only the Brave. A "unique and bracing" (Booklist) first-person account by the sole survivor of Arizona's disastrous 2013 Yarnell Hill Fire, which took the lives of 19 "hotshots"--firefighters trained specifically to battle wildfires. Brendan McDonough was on the verge of becoming a hopeless, inveterate heroin addict when he, for the sake of his young daughter, decided to turn his life around. He enlisted in the Granite Mountain Hotshots, a team of elite firefighters based in Prescott, Arizona. Their leader, Eric Marsh, was in a desperate crunch after four hotshots left the unit, and perhaps seeing a glimmer of promise in the skinny would-be recruit, he took a chance on the unlikely McDonough, and the chance paid off. Despite the crew's skepticism, and thanks in large part to Marsh's firm but loving encouragement, McDonough unlocked a latent drive and dedication, going on to successfully battle a number of blazes and eventually win the confidence of the men he came to call his brothers. Then, on June 30, 2013, while McDonough--"Donut" as he'd been dubbed by his team--served as lookout, they confronted a freak, 3,000-degree inferno in nearby Yarnell, Arizona. The relentless firestorm ultimately trapped his hotshot brothers, tragically killing all 19 of them within minutes. Nationwide, it was the greatest loss of firefighter lives since the 9/11 attacks. Granite Mountain is a gripping memoir that traces McDonough's story of finding his way out of the dead end of drugs, finding his purpose among the Granite Mountain Hotshots, and the minute-by-minute account of the fateful day he lost the very men who had saved him. A harrowing and redemptive tale of resilience in the face of tragedy, Granite Mountain is also a powerful reminder of the heroism of the people who put themselves in harm's way to protect us every day.

"Firefighters as seen by a psychologist in bunker gear" Dr. Gloria Bullman was given the rare privilege of spending days and nights in firehouses across North America riding to calls on engines, ladder trucks, rescues, squads and a helicopter. This psychologist shows the impact of line-of-duty death reaching far beyond the fallen firefighters and their families, also engulfing the extended family that is the brotherhood (which includes the sisters) that is the fire service. It was her expertise in helping emergency services personnel with traumatic losses that took her into the firehouses, and she tells something of this cost of being part of the fire service and something of the healing. Ride along through the Tenderloin in the "San Francisco Tony Bennett doesn't sing about," on an FDNY Squad and with paid and volunteer firefighters in rural and urban settings. Learn why the best food you can ever eat is handmade Italian ice eaten just as you come off a structure fire. Much of firefighters' lives are lived behind the closed bay doors, in privacy, while their work is done in public, often with watching crowds and TV crews. Very few people ever get a close-up view of both sides. The reader gets to climb into the engine and see the transition of the crew as they physically and mentally prepare themselves for whatever they find when they reach the place that people need their help and observe their response in pulling hose, swinging axes, extricating a patient from entrapment in a crushed car or carrying a victim from a fire. You will feel the changes as they fully commit to that person they have never met before being pulled back into life, that person they have come to save in their darkest moments. Heroes are ordinary people, choosing to do extraordinary things in the service of others. Live and ride with these heroes as they save lives and property, then go back to the firehouse and wash the dinner dishes. You will laugh and you might cry, but you will come away with a new understanding of who firefighters are and what they do.

An insider look at wildland firefighting today - Ben Walters' realistic, day-to-day account of life on a BLM engine crew

The story of the World War II conscientious objectors who volunteered for Civilian Public Service as U.S. Forest Service smoke jumpers is told in this history that reveals a little-known dimension of American pacifism.