Customer Reviews

A Great Day to Fight Fire: Mann Gulch, 1949

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first learned of Norman Maclean's "Young Men and Fire" in the New York Times book review when it was first published and subsequently read his beautifully written book, and re-read it several more times since then. The Mann Gulch fire is a compelling story that for some reason has affected me deeply, though I am neither a firefighter nor an outdoorsman.

John Maclean, in particular, adds to the depth of that event in his "Fire and Ashes" as well as the "Thirtymile Fire," written in the last several years and both teriffic reads.

Now comes along Mark Matthews' "A Great Day to Fight Fire," a book I bought because I continue to be drawn to the Mann Gulch story. You're probably thinking, like I did, how much more can be written on the subject? Well, I'll tell you, a lot. Mr. Matthews not only adds additional factual nuances to what happened that day, he retells the story from the eyes of everyone involved. By personalizing the event, he literally brings it to life.

This is a magnificent book. Mark Matthews, wherever you are, keep it coming: The end of the last chapter, "Julie Reba," is a stunning piece of writing.

Mark Matthews has written about the Mann Gulch fire before, and avid readers of firefighting literature may readily recognize both his style and the events. But what makes A GREAT DAY TO FIGHT FIRE memorable is its different focus on the people who fought the fire, rather than just strategies and events. Chapters in A GREAT DAY TO FIGHT FIRE focuses on the victim's families and the personal impact of the fire upon firefighters, family members, survivors, and community members: as such it's an essential piece of information key to any collection strong in firefighting literature - and any general-interest library interested in true-life heroism.

The Mann Gulch,MT. fire of 1949 was a seminal point in modern wildfires firefighting for the U.S. Forest Service. The deaths of 13 firefighters caused the Forest Service to implement training programs and develop safety equipment and protocols still being refined today.
Not since Norman MacLean's award winning book Young Men and Fire, published in 1992,has there been a real effort to revisit the fire and never has there been such an authoritative treatment of the personal dimensions of the tragedy as provided by the victim's families, close friends, and coworkers.
This is a heart stopping, minute-by-minute personal account of the men who fought, and died, in a wildfire that has forever remained in the nation's consciousness. The reader that has read both Young Men and Fire and this book will have as complete account of the tragedy as we are ever likely to get.

As the son of the Range, Bob Jansson, this book had special meaning to me. Although there have been other books written about this fire, this is the only one that I know of that gives the reader a view from the men and families involved. I commend the author for his work and highly recommend this book.

This book touched my heart so deeply. Getting aqquainted with the men of Mann Gulch was so rewarding. I had read "Young men & Fire" by Norman Maclean, but was still longing to know more about the character of the victims. I highly recomend this book.

The wildfire at Mann Gulch has been the subject of numerous books and inspired the 1951 Richard Widmark movie "Red Skies Of Montana." Norman Maclean wrote about it in his famous "Young Men and Fire" which was a very wordy book that, to me seemed to be more about writing than firefighting. I enjoyed this book because it brings to life the men behind the names. The author discribes this book as a "nonfiction novel." It is in the sense that he discribes in detail the actions and thoughts of these men in the early hours of what would be the last day of their lives. This makes the book more readalbe and does not take away from the historical facts of the event.

I disagree with the editorial review that said the the early introduction chapters are slow. For me I was interested in who these men were and how they came to have the greatest adventure job in the west. As a former paratrooper I found the cameradie in this book right on target. Reading "Young Men..." was like completing an assignment while this book was like being a fly on the wall (tree) during that tragic day.

I had the pleasure of finding this book in an incredible small outdoor theme bookstore in Missoula while doing construction improvements at the smokejumpers airfield. Great bookstore and a great town.

As a volunteer fire fighter/EMT here in southwest Montana, and a wildland firefighter during the summer months, when things heat up in our fire district, I purchased the book for some wintertime reading to start thinking about the upcoming wildland fire season. As I said in my title "A book with an ending you already know.." it is both an interesting and hard book to read, from the standpoint of knowing/wondering what was going through the minds of those smokejumpers as they were trying to outrun an upsloping fire racing towards them. You already know how the book ends, and there is a sadness in reading the book- as a firefighter, we go out enthusiastically to fight these fires, like soldiers going off to fight a war, but in our case, nobody is supposed to get hurt or killed. Every paging tone and deployment is the start of another great adventure, and we never think of what could happen when things go terribly bad. I now understand why that when I go out on out of district deployments(under someone elses control), my local fire chief has us check in as often as we can, to let him know we are safe and sound, and that we not putting ourselves in any unneccesary danger.
When I finished the book, I promised myself to start packing a bottle of "hurricane matches" in the pants pocket of my wildland pants, just like Wag Dodge did, which saved his life that fateful day in August 1949.

All in all, a great book for those trying to understand the human side of the Mann Gulch Fire of 1949.

Dayle Flynn
Firefighter/EMT
Columbus, MT Fire-Rescue Department