National Book Award–winner Timothy Egan turns his historian's eye to the largest-ever forest fire in America and offers an epic, cautionary tale for our time.

Winner of the Western Writers of America Spur Award for Teen Fiction from the author of Hitch and Paper Daughter. “A must-read for adrenaline junkies.”—VO

National Book Critics Circle Award Winner: “The terrifying story of the worst disaster in the history of the US Forest Service’s elite Smokejumpers.” —K

The wildfires that spread across Southern California in the fall of 2003 were devastating in their scale-twenty-two deaths, thousands of homes destroyed and man

Takes a comprehensive look at forest fires, their causes and the methods used to control them.