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Fire in Their Eyes: Wildfires and the People Who Fight Them

A dramatic environmental adventure about science, nature, and human daredevils. It will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Honors

A “Quick Pick” Book for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, American Library Association

A Top Nonfiction Book, National Council of Teachers of English

Nonfiction Honor List, Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)

YA Top 40, Pennsylvania School Librarians Association

Maine Student Book Award, a children’s choice award

Excerpt

“Suddenly another blaze seemed to come from nowhere, charging uphill toward him. Ken didn’t panic. He knew he couldn’t outrun the fire. “The thick smoke lifted long enough for him to see a huge boulder just a few feet away. Ken dived facedown behind the rock as the flame front rolled over the area. “As he lay at the base of the boulder, waiting for the air to cool enough so he could stand, Ken turned to look up through the smoke and couldn’t believe what he saw: fire climbing branches into the treetops. Flames lashed out at the sky, and a great wheel of fire seemed to roll down from the air, straight at Ken. He shielded his head with his jacket. “The fireball hit the rock and exploded.” --from an account by Ken Seonia, Native American firefighter, Jemez, New Mexico

Research & Writing

I always begin my research by reading everything I can find on a topic. After reading several fabulous books, starting with Norman Maclean’s Young Men and Fire, I was bursting with questions. Why would someone take on a wildfire in the first place? How hot is a fire? How fast does a fire move? Can you outrun a fire? How can you escape? What happens to animals in the woods?

While I start out reading to get a basic understanding, my favorite research method is “primary” research -- learning by doing and talking with experts, the people who live the experience. For the next couple years, I hung out with firefighters, collected stories, and interviewed dozens of people across the country—firefighters, foresters, fire management officers, fire lookouts, smokejumpers, hotshots, and prescribed burn experts.

Still, I needed to feel closer to the story. Sometimes there’s just no substitute for rolling up your sleeves and getting dirty. So I passed the physical test required of firefighters (the ‘step test’) and worked on a prescribed burn crew for two seasons, sometimes carrying a fire rake, sometimes my camera. My whole life seemed to be smoky “Kodak moments.”

But prescribed burns are intentionally small and in control (hopefully). Where I live the wildfires are relatively small because, as my forester husband says, the Northeast woods are an “asbestos forest,” that is, it doesn’t burn readily. Not like those in the tinder-dry West. So Margarita Phillips, an experienced smokejumper trainer, invited me to two weeks of a 6-week training camp for smokejumper wannabes in Missoula, MT. Hooked to a static line secured to the plane, I took photographs out the plane’s open door as the rookies jumped into the wind. On the ground, I interviewed Margarita and the other smokejumpers—rookies and veterans. Each story was better than the last.

Research and interviewing were the fun parts of the job. Much harder were the months spent transcribing taped interviews, writing, condensing, revision. Hardest of all was cutting exciting stories to make room for dramatic photos.

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Teacher’s Guide

Download and print lesson ideas for Fire in Their Eyes (PDF file)

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