Book Description

This bestselling author of High Crimes explores what causes forest fires and captures their danger and the heroism of those who fight them. In Megafire, a world-renowned journalist and forest fire expert travels to dangerous and remote wildernesses, as well as to the backyards of people faced with these catastrophes, to look at the heart of this phenomenon and witness firsthand the heroic efforts of the firefighters and scientists racing against time to stop it—or at least to tame these deadly flames. From Colorado to California, China to Canada, head to the frontlines on the ground and in the air, as well as in the laboratories, universities, and federal agencies where this battle rages on. Through this prism of perspectives, Kodas zeroes in on some of the most terrifying environmental disasters in recent years—the Yarnell Hill Fire in Arizona that took the lives of nineteen elite “hotshot” firefighters, the Waldo Canyon Fire that overwhelmed the city of Colorado Springs—and more in a page-turning narrative that puts a face on the brave people at the heart of this issue. Megafiredescribes the profound global impact of these fires and will change the way we think about the environment and the precariousness of our world. “I don't know any writer better equipped to explain what's gone wrong than Michael Kodas, who shines a light both on the astonishing bravery of the hotshots on the front lines and on the waste and ineptitude of the politicians and bureaucrats who too often fail them, sometimes with fatal consequences.”—Dan Fagin, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation