Fire on the Mountain: The True Story of the South Canyon Fire [Hardcover]

John N. Maclean (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 22, 1999

When, on the morning of July 3, 1994, the site of a forest fire on Storm King Mountain in Colorado was wrongly recorded as taking place at South Canyon, it became the first of a series of seemingly small human errors that, three days later, led to the deaths of fourteen fire fighters, including four women. Fire on the Mountain sets out to answer three mysteries that surrounded the blaze: Why wasn't the fire, which could be seen clearly from an interstate highway, put out earlier? Why did Don Mackey, a smoke jumper who was already a legend in his own time, turn back to the fire after making his way to safety? And how could such a seasoned group of fire fighting professionals be caught off guard so badly?

With the aid of papers obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and dozens of interviews, Fire on the Mountain also takes a long, hard look at the official investigation that followed the fire and the divided conclusions of the investigative team. If this book is action/adventure at its best, it also offers deeply moving insights into the lives of the smoke jumpers, hot shots, and helitacks who fight forest fires and put their own well being on the line as a daily part of their jobs.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Colorado and its neighboring states battle thousands of wildfires every year, scrub and sagebrush blazes often ignited by lightning strikes in the dry, hot days of summer. A vast, intertwined firefighting infrastructure combining local resources with agencies like the Forest Service and the BLM, reacts to these flare-ups as if going to war--and in theory, the coordination and communication ensures that fires are fought in the most efficient and safe manner possible. But while most wildfires in Colorado end up costing just over $60,000 on average with no loss of life, the catastrophic South Canyon fire of 1994 burned for 10 days, at the ultimate cost of $4.5 million and the lives of 14 firefighters. OSHA would later describe the coordinated action flatly as a "management failure," and concurrent investigations would reveal a tangled web of jealous rivalries, bureaucratic bungling, and severe morale problems. (One of the early on-scene supervisors would later tell investigators, "Leadership in this state sucks.")

John Maclean (son of Norman Maclean, who wrote both A River Runs Through It and an award-winning account of Montana's deadly 1949 Mann Gulch fire) skillfully unfolds that summer's foreboding blow-by-blow. Fire on the Mountain weaves together a tense narrative of almost cinematic action, starring ballsy cowboy smokejumpers, frustrated federal middle managers, seasoned "hotshots" flown in like commandos, pissed-off tanker pilots, and well-intentioned but spin-wary politicians. Maclean's well-sketched personalities bring the action on the ground convincingly to life--and knowing up front that many of his main characters won't survive South Canyon makes this tragic tale that much more compelling. --Paul Hughes

From Publishers Weekly

With a reporter's objectivity and brisk prose, Maclean describes a series of small blunders in fire management that led to tragedy in July 1994 in western Colorado when a thunderstorm on Storm King Mountain, mislabeled by a dispatcher as South Canyon, killed 14 firefighters. As rain evaporated in the severe heat and drought, lightning ignited the high desert forest of scrub oak, pinion pine and juniper. Maclean's evenhandedness works against him: the reader longs for more outrage at the series of blunders and misfortunes that first led to a delay in responding to the fire and, later, to fatalities among those who battled the blaze. Maclean does bring the terrain and the fire to life with clarity and economy, and he paints a vivid portrait of the rugged firefighters who supply the most thrilling and saddest moments, men and women who displayed remarkable bravery and sheer physical effort. Among the 49 firefighters assembled on Storm King Mountain by the National Interagency Fire Center were "smoke jumpers," who parachute onto fires; "helitacks," who attack fire from helicopters; and "hot shots," mostly younger ground teams with a mix of skills and experience. Nine of the deaths were hotshots from Prineville, Ore. Maclean handles their deaths respectfully and manages to communicate the lessons to be drawn about fire management in the course of a suspenseful narrative filled with admirable, everyday heroes. 7-city author tour. (Oct.) FYI: The author's father, Norman Maclean, wrote the classic Young Men and Fire about the 1949 smoke jumper disaster in Mann Gulch, Mont..
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1 edition (September 22, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688144772
• ISBN-13: 978-0688144777
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #175,489 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #60 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Agricultural Sciences > Forestry
  • #81 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Earth Sciences > Natural Disasters

More About the Author

John Norman Maclean, a longtime Washington journalist and now a prize-winning author, has published three books on wildland fire and is working on a fourth, about the 2006 Esperanza Fire in Southern California that took five firefighter lives and the subsequent conviction and sentence to death of Raymond Oyler for starting the fire. Maclean's most recent published book is The Thirtymile Fire: A Chronicle of Bravery and Betrayal.
"For 15 years I have walked where firefighters walked, taken fire classes with them, addressed their meetings, listened to their stories -- that's the best part, along with the hikes. And I've tried to make their high-adrenalin, high-risk existence familiar to general readers, so they can better appreciate and understand the service these exceptional men and women provide. Best job I ever had."
Maclean, a reporter, writer and editor for The Chicago Tribune for 30 years, resigned from the newspaper in 1995 to write Fire on the Mountain, a critically acclaimed account of the 1994 fire on Storm King Mountain in Colorado that took the lives of 14 firefighters. The book, a national bestseller, received the Mountains and Plains Booksellers award as the best non-fiction of 1999.
Underground Films, Inc. has developed a script from the book for a full-length feature movie and is seeking a director. A two-hour docu-movie by the History Channel based on Fire on the Mountain won the Cine Master's Award for Excellence as the best non-fiction or fiction documentary of 2003. Harper Collins is scheduled to publish an updated edition of the book in its Harper Perennial line in December, 2009.
Maclean, the son of famed author Norman Maclean (A River Runs through It) has helped edit two of his father's books: Young Men and Fire and The Norman Maclean Reader, which the University of Chicago Press published in November, 2008. Maclean was a Washington correspondent for The Tribune for almost two decades. He was one of the "Kissinger 14," the small group of media who regularly traveled with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger during the era of "shuttle diplomacy." Maclean went on to serve as the Tribune's foreign editor. He was a Nieman Fellow in Journalism, a mid-career fellowship for journalists at Harvard University, for the academic year 1974-75.
Maclean maintains a website at johnmacleanbooks.com.
He divides his time between his family cabin at Seeley Lake, Montana, and Washington, D.C. Maclean has a wife, Frances, and two sons: Daniel, a science teacher and author of Paddling the Yukon River and its Tributaries and Paddling Alaska, and John Fitzroy, a public defender.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WHEN TRUTH AND TRAGEDY COME TOGETHER, March 30, 2000

By 

[e-mail] - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fire on the Mountain: The True Story of the South Canyon Fire (Hardcover)

John Maclean's "FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN" is subtitled "The True Story of The South Canyon Fire," and it is indeed the true story. Because the truth about what happened on that awful day in 1994 is so convoluted, so complex and multi-layered, and so strewn with conflicting viewpoints and cumulative errors and circumstances, writing the true story would have been impossible for anyone intimately involved with the fire. Maclean, however, brings his formidable background as a 30-year journalist to the story, and he makes the setting, the background, and the tragedy come alive for his readers.

With meticulous attention to detail and the unflagging search for facts that only a professional journalist can bring to bear, Maclean waded through stacks and years of documents, reports, interviews, and background material to produce a book that exceeded all expectations. The subjects of the book - wildland firefighters and wildland fire managers in state and federal land management agencies - nearly all agree that it's an accurate portrayal of both the South Canyon Fire and also the world of wildland fire. It's honest, it's well researched, and it's a compellingly good read. It explains and answers the many questions that nagged those of us in fire after the 1994 season.

If you're in fire, or you know someone who is, this book is mandatory.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book you'll want to read more than once!, September 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Fire on the Mountain: The True Story of the South Canyon Fire (Hardcover)

I was privileged to read this book twice as bound galleys and now a third time in finished form. With each reading I find myself again caught up in the events of July 6, 1994 in western Colorado. I am drawn deeper into the lives of wildland fire fighters and the exciting, dangerous job they have. "Fire on the Mountain" accurately portrays these modern day heroes as they become caught within a modern day tragedy that is the South Canyon Fire. Event though I was closely involved in the incident and know many of the details presented in this book, I learned a lot from it and found it hard to put down. When I had to put it down, I couldn't wait to pick it up again.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fire on the Mountain, December 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Fire on the Mountain: The True Story of the South Canyon Fire (Hardcover)

This is a detailed, accurate and captivating narrative. Fire on the Mountain is truly a service to the fire fighting community because it dispels many of the inevitable myths and rumors about the South Canyon Fire. In 1996, I jumped a fire with Eric Hipke who was one of the most fortunate survivors on South Canyon. He said he was impressed by the efforts John Maclean was making to write this book. In April of 1995, Maclean quit a long-time career at the Chicago Tribune where he had been an editor, correspondent and reporter. He spent the next 4 1/2 years researching and editing material for Fire On the Mountain. The bookÕs thoroughness and accuracy reflect his professional experience and talent. John tirelessly researched every aspect of the story. Of the 49 firefighters at South Canyon, 35 lived. John interviewed 30 survivors. He gathered photos, dispatch logs and copies of anything that was written during or after the fire. Firefighters on the fire reviewed every chapter. This is the most authoritative work done on the fire. Much more detailed than the official report which took 45 days to complete. Maclean's account is very readable.