ebooks Fire on the Mountain: The True Story of the South Canyon Fire by John N. Maclean in History

Review

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Heartbreaking true account of young men and women giving their lives to fight fire.By Carl L. RoofA gripping true account of a most heartbreaking effort by a group of "hotshots" (wildland firefighters) from Oregon to fight a fire on Storm King Mountain that initially had been erroneously called in as being on South Canyon; near Glenwood; Colorado. We were so moved by it that on our next trip out to the area; we found and hiked the trail to a small memorial that gives added context to the story.3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Definitely Supplements the South Canyon ReportsBy R. KnowltonI've studied the South Canyon fire on and off ever since I helped build the memorial trail on Storm King Mountain way back in 1995. Just a young 19-year-old then; my only remaining memories are of carrying landscaping material; briefly sitting beside a father as he dug the hole for his son's/daughter's cross; and choking up with exhaustion and tears as I tried to climb the last 150 yards to Zero Point. The book helped me to have a much broader understanding of the incident after all these years.This books fills in a lot of the back stories and firefighter biographies that are not present in the two South Canyon incident reports. It certainly doesn't answer all the questions about the fire--they likely exist in the ten thousand pages of reference material cited by Maclean at the end of the book--but it's certainly worth reading for anyone looking for more insight into the incident.Written in a nice prose style; Maclean builds suspense throughout the first five chapters; even though I already knew what the final outcome of the fire was. It put an ache in my gut more than once as Maclean described the everyday activities and fateful chance decisions of the firefighters 24 to 48 hours before their deaths. The prose isn't perfect: On more than one occasion; Maclean refers to previous wildland incidents (such as Mann Gulch) in a choppy fashion in an attempt to relate it to South Canyon. The attempt is probably lost on the casual reader. References like that only made sense to me because I've studied the fires (or took the time to look them up while I was reading the book). The obligatory photos in the center of the book are in black and white (hence the -1 star) and aren't very useful when it comes time to understanding movement in the last minutes of the firefighters' lives. To get useful pictures; the reader will need to download one of the official reports; which will have much more detailed reference photographs.The book provides a nice level of detail that allows me to study the leadership decisions and risk management associated with the fire while providing useful insight into the emotional side of the tragedy.3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Fire on the MountainBy jackThis was great reading. I was somewhat emotional at times. I am a retired U.S. Forest Service employee and firefighter and knew several of the Prineville crew members. John did a great job in investigating what happened and how this tragedy came to happen. Very good book. I also recommend this reading by other firefighters as a heads up as to what can happen in a very short time on wildfires. A few minutes can make a difference between life and death.