According to a report from the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), nearly 9 million acres burned as a result of 64,897 wildfires in 2024. With wildfire seasons becoming longer, and wildfire reaching every region of the country, more and more firefighters are taking to the front lines to battle these incidents, whether large or small, rural or urban conflagration.
If you are one of the countless firefighters on the front lines battling these monster incidents, you’ve likely gone through some level of wildland fire training, but there’s always more to learn, particularly for those firefighters who have long considered themselves to be structural firefighters, now taking on more wildland-urban interface blazes. Similarly, even if you’ve been working wildfires for years, the hazards continue to grow, so training must expand as well.
The following books can help new or veteran wildland firefighters learn more about your craft and those who have battled these blazes long before you.
Notable events
“The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America”
By Timothy Egan
This book centers on the Great Fire of 1910 that burned large areas of Idaho, Montana and Washington. More than 3 million acres of forest were destroyed and several towns were incinerated. Of the 87 people killed in these fires, most were firefighters. The book intertwines the story of the wildfire with Teddy Roosevelt’s pioneering notion of conservation, which sought to frame public land as one of our national treasures. Also of note is the heroic account of Ed Pulaski and the wildfire-fighting device he invented that still bears his name.
“Young Men and Fire”
By Norman Maclean
“Young Men and Fire” focuses on the Montana Mann Gulch Fire of 1949 and the 12 U.S. Forest Service smokejumpers who were killed while battling the blaze. Maclean had a connection to the region, having worked in logging camps and for the USFS in Montana before he pursued his academic career. The book details the tragedy that killed the smokejumpers while also seeking to find meaning in the disaster by understanding the smokejumpers’ decisions and the fire’s behavior.
“Fire on the Mountain: The True Story of the South Canyon Fire”
By John N. Maclean
John N. Maclean helped to finish the aforementioned book, “Young Men and Fire,” after his father’s death in 1990. In 1999, he followed in his father’s footsteps by releasing “Fire on the Mountain” — his first in a series of books centered on wildfires. “Fire on the Mountain” details a 1994 wildfire on Colorado’s Storm King Mountain that was wrongly identified at the outset as occurring in South Canyon. This seemingly minor human error was merely the first in a string of mistakes that would be compounded into one of the greatest tragedies in the annals of firefighting.
“Granite Mountain”
By Brendan McDonough
Brendan McDonough was on the verge of becoming a heroin addict when he decided to turn his life around and enlist in a team of elite firefighters based out of Prescott, Arizona, known as the Granite Mountain Hotshots. McDonough battled a number of blazes with his new crew and gained their confidence. Tragedy would strike though in June 2013 when an inferno killed all 19 of his fellow hotshots. This book traces McDonough’s path from drug addiction to finding purpose and ultimately dealing with the tragedy of losing his fellow hotshots. The book inspired the 2017 film “Only the Brave.”
Memoirs
“Smokejumper: A Memoir by One of America’s Most Select Airborne Firefighters”
By Jason A. Ramos and Julian Smith
Jason A. Ramos’s career began at the age of 17 as a volunteer with the Riverside County (California) Fire Department, then shifted to wildland firefighting in Southern California. He ultimately became a smokejumper based out of the North Cascades Smokejumper Base in Washington. Ramos takes readers into the exhilarating and dangerous world of smokejumping, explores the remarkable history of the job, and explains why smokejumpers’ services are more essential than ever before.
“Jumping Fire: A Smokejumper’s Memoir of Fighting Wildfire”
By Murry A. Taylor
Here’s another book for readers looking to dive into the world of smokejumpers. This one centers on Alaskan Smokejumper Murry A. Taylor and is fueled by the extensive journal he kept during a busy summer fighting wildfires. You get brushes with death, tales of conquered fires (and the ones that got away) and stories of epic battles of man versus nature that sometimes result in serious injury and occasionally tragedy.
“Burnt: A Memoir of Fighting Fire”
By Clare Frank
“Burnt” is Frank’s inspiring, richly detailed and open-hearted account of an extraordinary life in fire. It chronicles the transformation of a young adult determined to prove her mettle into a scarred and sensitive veteran, grappling with the weight of her duties as chief of fire protection – one of the highest-ranking women in CAL FIRE history – while record-setting fires engulf her home state. [Read an excerpt here.]
Advice for new recruits
“The Supe’s Handbook: Leadership Lessons from America’s Hotshot Crews”
By Angie Tom
This best-practices guide and oral history is written for wildland firefighters and anyone else looking for insights into living and working as a hotshot. The book draws on insights from over 30 hotshot supervisors on topics ranging from advice on starting a career in wildland fire to dealing with burnout and heartbreak to balancing a dangerous job with home and family life.
The science of fires
“Ignition: Lighting Fires in a Burning World”
By M.R. O’Connor
In this book, journalist M.R. O’Connor ventures into some of the oldest, most beautiful, and remote forests in North America to explore the powerful and ancient relationship among trees, fires and humans. She describes how the world’s forests have been shaped by fire for hundreds of millions of years and embeds on firelines alongside both firefighters and “pyrotechnicians” — the latter being skilled practitioners of prescribed burning. At the heart of “Ignition” is a discussion about risk and how our relationship to it as a society will determine our potential to survive the onslaught of climate change.
