Hansen mostly hangs out with a wildland fire crew in Boulder, Colorado, but she travels around the western USA a bit too, talking with fire experts of various sorts. I didn't know much of anything about hotshots etc. before reading this book, and now I know a lot more. This is a very nice introductory survey. The final part of the book is a more detailed narrative of a fire in Boulder County that Hansen observed. They got the fire under control in a few days and only lost half a dozen houses or so, but it was plenty big enough to be scary.

It really is a kind of survey book. It doesn't have much structure or some central argument. It's just a ramble through the territory. But Hansen tells the stories well so the string of facts never gets boring.

We just moved to the west a few years ago, and then a few weeks ago we had an 80 acre wildfire on the mountainside a couple miles from our house, in clear view so we could watch the helicopters etc. This was a great book to satisfy the interest that was created by that event! ( )