Stephen Pyne spent 15 summers fighting forest fires. His new very enlightening and entertaining book is somewhat misleading as he has actually compressed those 15 years into what purports to be one summer. Although the book does not cover the famous Yellowstone fires of 1988 it does address some of the issues which they have brought to the forefront. (Pyne was a member of the committee reviewing the consequences of the Yellowstone fires.) The book is full of human detail; what it is like to be on the front line (including the interesting detail that money conscious firefighters can earn lots of overtime if the struggle against a minor fire can be stretched out.) He has a rye sense of humor as when explaining how useful the plastic goggles are: "They are supposed to keep the smoke out of your eyes. But you see, they have all these holes for ventilation. The smoke pours through. If you seal off the holes, the glasses fog up. The government issues these. We all carry them."
