|
By the time I finished it, I had decided that I wanted to become a hot shot, maybe even a smoke jumper. As someone who had grown up morbidly terrified of fire, it was bizarre enough for me to grow up to become a firefighter. More than that, it provides an educational resource for anyone wanting to understand the multitudinous complexities of fighting wildland fires. This title has become the first of my ever-growing collection of documentary accounts of catastrophic/fatality fires, has been a discussion point in some of my fire classes, and is a frequent study and reference tool for research papers. I had always thought wildland firefighters were insane, given the shifty nature of wildland fires, and the stories I'd heard of the crews lost on the line. A partner on the ambulance recommended this book to me a few years back, and once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down.
A tragedy in history is retold and in the process I experienced a kaleidoscope of emotions, a technical understanding of firefighting (about which I knew less than nothing), and an appreciation for community. FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN is detailed and documented, coupled with a narrative skill that makes a terrific read. I could completely visualize these complex events, all of the characters involved and their motivational forces.
The writer did a good job researching it and took the time to do it right. It shows how skilled, trained and experienced firefighters end up suffering from supervisiors and managers who loose common sense and logical thinking as they progress up the ranks.
I knew of the problems in western Colorado from friends and had a couple of bad experiences well before the fire and given the chance would not take an assignment there if possible. It also shows how long hours, tunnel vision and ignoring the established rules can lead to tragedy.
Having knowen several of the people in the book including two who were killed and being a wildland firefighter my self for a number of years I feel that I can speak with some inside knowledge of the book. I just feel sorry so many had to die including my two friends.
But fire is a lot like the military you take what you are given with out question and work as hard as possible to get the job done.This book is a true account and is hard to put down once started. I don't consider myself an expert by any means but know the agencies and their cultures and how decisions are often made or not made.
It reads well, is factual and tells the truth about what happned.
It is mandatory reading for many fire departments and a well-used case-study of the factors behind the official factors and the faces behind the names. This book started an industry-wide initiative to go behind the scenes and beyond the clinical deconstruction of the facts to attempt to know the people who were involved and "walk a mile" in their shoes. John McLean is now the name to read for wildland fire narratives. This book is the new standard among wildland firefighters for post-incident and post-analysis review. After the investigation reports have been filed and the causal factors have been officially determined, those of us in the business always know there are deeper roots to the causes of human behavior than any scientific team can determine or document.
I also felt that McLean may have changed his mind (or had his mind changed) in terms of "heroes and villains". The fire on Storm King could probably have been suppressed in short order if the response had been sooner and more vigorous. I felt like this must have been at one point a much longer book that then got chopped up with key bits of explication and narrative discarded perhaps to meet some page limit. A mixture of inter-departmental infighting, bad luck, and, in some cases seeming incompetence doomed what sounds like "a nice bunch of kids".
It must be horribl;e to be a writer son of a brilliant writer parent and part of me wonders whether this book would ever have seen the light of day if the author's name had been "John Smith" but for those of us horrified, intrigued, and fascinated by wild-fire I am glad that we get what is in some sense a sequel to Young Men and Fire, Norman McLean's unfinished masterpiece. Yes, it is a complex story & many people were both to blame and worthy of praise, but it IS still a story and in trying to be fair McLean winds up muddying our perception of many of the key characters. The result is that I regularly found myself going back & saying "wait a minute, what about." or "weren't we going to find out about." and being disappointed. Ironies abound throughout the story.
Unfortunmately the younger McLean doesn't get the editorial help that he perhaps deserved. I finished the book wanting to know more rather than feeling that I had gained a great deal of new insight into either the specific fire or the people and agencies that fight wildlands fires in general. Again and again we see moments where if people had acted differently or remembered their history we would have seen a minor event rather than a major tragedy. The fire burned areas that in the end were of no concern to humans.
|
