Wildfire: On The Front Lines With Station 8

· Mountaineers Books
5.0
1 review
Ebook
320
Pages
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About this ebook

"In Wildfire, the journalist Heather Hansen embeds herself in an elite crew of wildland firefighters based in Boulder, Colorado.... Hansen learns and shares some fire science and fire history, filling in the background of the current crisis. She describes the crew’s punishing training and their powerful camaraderie, and recounts their stories of fires fought, disasters survived, lessons learned." -- New York Review of Books

  • The author was embedded with one of the busiest wildfire crews in the United States
  • Reveals wildfires through the experiences of the people who go face-to-face with them
  • Focuses on challenges faced in Western states

Every year wildfires ravage forests, destroy communities, and devastate human lives, with only the bravery of dedicated firefighters creating a barrier against even greater destruction. Throughout the 2016 wildfire season, journalist Heather Hansen witnessed firsthand the heroics of the Station 8 crew in Boulder, Colorado. She tells that story here, layered with the added context of the history, science, landscape, and human behavior that, year-by-year, increases the severity, frequency, and costs of conflagrations in the West. She examines the changes in both mindset and activity around wildfires and tracks the movement from wildfire as something useful, to something feared, to something necessary but roundly dreaded.

Wildfire shares the drama, hardships, and experiences of the firefighters who try, sometimes in vain, to prevent destruction when a spark flares out of control. Hansen tells the rich and frightening stories of the firefighters themselves and the challenges they face: a safety system struggling to keep up with fire seasons that are lengthening, fires that are becoming more extreme, and agencies that are struggling to cover the bills.

Ratings and reviews

5.0
1 review
Jennifer Graziano
June 15, 2025
Normal challenges are not to be disturbed; at all touched, or have own domain entered. It's a master and leader of own life. Breathing is mastered by the toddler year because growing out of the word is the only way to bigger ones behind them. Meditating: yoga, walking and talking the same year provide strength for own schedule of busy people. Combining the words science and religion for 'let there be light" are required for psychiatrist's evaluation result of normal - defends own money well - being. To get normal results from the doctors is the only survival. These is not more from them then normal or not.
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About the author

Heather Hansen is an award-winning reporter, specializing in environmental and travel writing. She is the author of Wildfire: On the Front Lines with Station 8, and her work has appeared in High Country News, National Geographic Traveler, Smithsonian, Outside, Mountain Gazette, and others. She splits her time between Boulder, Colorado, and Cambridge, UK. Follow her online at heather-hansen.com.

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