The Fire Line: The Story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots

This is an insightful story about that ill-fated event. As a seasonal wildland firefighter with over 20 years of experience, I have worked with, and known literally hundreds of young men just like these. They are your neighbor, former classmate, brother, cousin and best friend. Many are college students trying to earn money for school. I remember that day as clear as if it were yesterday. As soon as the news was released, I had friends and family members blowing up my phone trying to find out if I was on the fire and making sure I was ok.

Unlike one of the other reviewer's, I didn't read any political agenda in this book. It is a known fact among firefighters that fires are becoming larger and more intense due to a number of factors such as drought, fuel loading and disease. Urban interface has compounded the problem.

I will say that as a supervisor, being a seasonal employee for the federal government (USFS- I was a sawyer, engine captain and squad boss) I was only making just over $15 an hour with no benefits other than sickleave and a little bit of vacation time, and that is typical for seasonal employees. When we are injured, unless we can afford our own insurance, our medical bills are paid by Worker's Comp. which is a difficult process. Fortunately for me I am a schoolteacher, so I had my own medical insurance. This book not only puts a real person with the names of the fallen, it points out those gaps in benefits for firefighters. While we are aware of the situation, no one ever believes it can happen to them, and we accept that risk and relatively low pay because we are doing what we love, working outdoors.

Santos did a good job of researching and understanding fire behavior and the operations of firefighting . As a firefighter, there were some issues however, with tools and gear which I noticed that a layman wouldn't. Things such as her description of drip torches having an igniter to light them (they don't), we don't use picks and axes we use pulaski's (as she described), rhinos, shovels and many other tools, but not picks and axes in fire line construction. Our boots (White's and Nick's) are certainly not insulated as she stated several times. They're made out of thick leather with hard rubber Vibram soles but your feet still get extremely hot inside when you're working the fire. To her credit, she did a very good job of trying to understand the complex world and equipment of wildland fire.

The question that still remain unanswered, but the answer is implied or speculated as to why they left the safety of the black. The answer to that question died with them in that brushy basin. I appreciate the fact that Santos doesn't look for blame. Wildland fire is chaotic and constantly evolving and situational awareness is crucial on all levels in order to stay relatively safe. Relative being the key word.

For me, it was emotionally difficult to read this book, because I could identify so closely with the young men who perished, and the struggle of the families that they left behind. It is important that their story be told and an awareness made among the public as to the difficult job of the wildland firefighter and the sacrifices made by their families. When you see these dirty exhausted men and women in your grocery store grabbing snacks, or fueling up their vehicles headed off to the next fire, give them your thanks.

This is a good book and I highly recommend it.

This book was written in the right way and with much love and heart. Fernanda took the time to interview everyone involved as much as she could and told the store the way it needed to be written. Being from Prescott I could totally visualize every location that was listed in this book including everything in Yarnell. This book will not be topped. There are many things that are learned in this book that the media either did not publish correctly or was incorrectly reported. I will steal the words of a friend here and say that "sometimes, its all about context which, in this story was missing." and boy was she right!

This spring I went to a conference in Boston called Power of Narrative and got an early copy of THE FIRE LINE: The story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots and one of the deadliest days in American firefighting.
I finished the book this week. It’s a fast-moving, vividly written read that transported me to the arid American west, a place where brave men battle wildfires that can turn and kill them.
Author Fernanda Santos was working as the Phoenix bureau chief of the New York Times when she read on Twitter that men had died fighting a wildfire. She drove off to learn more, covered the story for the newspaper and wrote this narrative nonfiction book.
The first pages of THE FIRE LINE lay out the basic facts of what happened near Yarnell, Arizona on June 30, 2013. A group of elite wilderness firefighters found themselves caught between a fast-moving blaze and a steep mountain that blocked their escape. They resorted to a desperate attempt to save their lives: hiding in tentlike fire shelters that repel heat. The fire was simply too hot - an estimated 2,000 degrees - and 19 men suffered what must have been agonizing deaths.
A sequence of errors led the men into this impossible position, but Santos’ narrative spends little time pointing fingers. She writes in the author’s note, “I knew, from early on, that to explain the great loss would lead far beyond assigning blame for the fatalities. In firefighting, decisions are based on probabilities, on the best information at hand, and they’re made quickly, very quickly.”
More than a simple explanation of what went wrong, THE FIRE LINE serves as an exploration of the peculiar world the men inhabited. It’s a world of days away from home and backbreaking labor, of clearing fire lines using chainsaws and hand tools like monkey paws, which are rakes with long teeth used for pulling vegetation between rocks.
Drawing on posthumous interviews with family members as well as documents ranging from job application forms to personal diaries, Santos introduces us to men like Travis Turbyfill, who keeps a copy of “Goodnight Moon” in his backpack and reads it to his daughters over the phone when out on assignments. Another notable man was Eric Marsh, a crew leader who’d interview prospective recruits with a question to probe their moral fitness for this rugged band of anti-fire soldiers: “When was the last time you lied?”
Their wives and girlfriends come to life, too - a grieving, pregnant widow feels so angry at her dead firefighter that she swings a sledgehammer and tears a hole in in a wall of a trailer.
Strong explanatory sections describe the relevant science: for instance, how a storm might not simply quench a fire, but actually create unpredictable winds that fuel it.
All of this is hard-won knowledge. Santos writes in the author’s note that she completed basic training at the Arizona Wildfire and Incident Management Academy in Prescott, Arizona, then returned for a course on the connection between fire and weather.
One of the biggest surprises of the book is bureaucratic: many of the men who died were temps, with relatively low pay, no health insurance, no paid holidays and no job security. After their highly publicized deaths, their employer, the city of Prescott, Arizona, fought to deny payments to the temps’ families.
I traveled to cover wildfires when I worked as a reporter in Arkansas, and I’ll never forget their strange power, how they reduced a home in the woods to ashes and how the flames continued to burn underground as dried-up tree roots carried the blaze deeper and deeper. THE FIRE LINE brings this dangerous natural phenomenon to life and raises serious questions about development patterns in the American west. Santos reports that by 2014, 17 million homes were situated in areas prone to wildfire. After reading this book, these development choices appear extraordinarily foolish.
Finally, and most important, THE FIRE LINE reflects clear love and respect for the family members of the dead firefighters who trusted Santos with their stories. It’s that love and respect that gives this book its heart. - Daniel Connolly

I received and read The Fire Line, The Story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots by Fernanda Santos last evening. It is a great read. It gives an informative look into wildland fire without losing the momentum of the story, something I find lacking in many books covering similar events. The people and profession involved are portrayed honestly and respectfully, without being vilified or lionized. Very well done.
Buy and read the book. You will be glad you did.

I have read almost all the books that have been written about wildfire tragedies and this one was one of the best written. It is clear from the beginning that Santos did extensive research, not only on this one incident - but wildland firefighting tactics as a whole. It seems like she took great effort to respect the families of these men and write a story worthy of the lives they lived and the death they faced. I was skeptical at first because usually when someone who has no firefighting background attempts to write something like this, the facts and terminology are terribly butchered by their ignorance - this was not the case with Santos. Worth the read.

this is a story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots who perished in the largest loss of firefighters since the 9-11 attacks and the largest death toll of wildland firefighters since 1933.This fire took place in Yarnell Arizona in 2013. The author Fernanda Santos does a masterful job of bringing to life the 19 Hotshots lost on that fateful day. She describes their training,camaraderie, discipline and professionalism while also describing their family lives that were tragically cut short. Though you know the outcome of the fire before you read this story, you will eagerly turn the pages of this story until the end. There is coverage of the discovery of the bodies still in their shelters which were deployed as a last resort to survive and a chapter on the surviving family members and how they have managed to carry on. Many of these Wildland firefighters were making only $12.00 an hour and did not have health coverage due to their seasonal/partime status. You will come away with a greater understanding of Wildland Firefighters upon completion of this book. As the author describes on pg. 142 "Human beings take shelter from Hurricanes, flee tsunamis , keep their distance from tornadoes , move indoors when dust storms roll by. Wildfires they choose to fight". This is a story of 19 brave men who paid the ultimate price while protecting life and property, this story keeps their names and their sacrifice for their fellow man alive. Do yourself and their memory a favor , read this book.

I live in New Mexico where I have witnessed some devastating wild fires and The Fire Line is a must read to open one's eyes about fighting forest fires and the dangers involved. Fernanda has written an excellent book about these young men who died doing what they loved. She brought them back to life in her descriptive prose causing each of them to become more than just a name in the newspaper. Because of this book, I am ever more thankful to the men and women who fight mother nature under the most violent conditions of forest fires. This is a story that needed telling and I highly recommend this book.

This was a good read and the author did a top-notch job of revealing the human element of this tragedy. She's a journalist and she went straight for the heart--the "people stories"--which is what good journalists do. There were several errors that a good book editor should have caught, and I was disappointed that there was no analysis of the investigations into what actually happened and if there were errors in command decisions, etc. Having been around the fire service for almost four decades, this book raises some important questions--rarely asked--about insurance coverage and other "worst case scenarios" for individuals engaged in an occupation that is, at the same time, noble, exciting and exceedingly hazardous. I read the book slowly, deliberately. Now I want to visit the scene to see for myself, and reflect. This book goes on my shelf next to John and Norman MacLean's fire books...no higher compliment.

I worked as a wildland firefighter for seven years, on a hotshot crew for four of them. I remember, in 2013, when I heard about Granite Mountain, I'd been out of the field for three years, and my heart broke. I cried for days. How awful, to think that these men died unnecessarily. Santos does such a beautiful job of giving these firefighters the justice they deserved. In beautiful prose and with a quick and readable form, she makes life as a hotshot accessible for the common reader, and shows what guts it takes for someone to work on a hotshot crew. She brings the reader into the world of wildland fire, but doesn't sentimentalize it. The book is meticulously researched, and she doesn't take any liberties: everything written is true, and can be proven so with transcripts, etc. The index is extensive. Santos has done her homework, and her journalistic labors pay out in spades.
The Yarnell Hill Fire wasn't any different than any other fire, and that's why it's such a tragedy that these men died. Piece by piece, we figure out how a long line of bad decisions creates a tragic event.
Not only does she report this tragedy beautifully and with empathy, but she also brings the reader into the lives of the spouses of these men, the people left behind; many of them never getting the benefits they deserved. There are flaws in the way seasonal workers are taken care of, and that becomes clear. I hope that this will spur some policy changes for wildland firefighters, because they deserve all the benefits that structural firefighters have.

I think what makes this book so special is that Santos is reporting. She is not emotional, and she is not taking liberties to sensationalize the story or coming from a biased perspective. This is so unique in reportage. I also appreciate her perspective as a woman and her inclusion of all experiences, not just those of the firefighters. It's so important that we can see who these crew members were outside of the crew.

I won't call this book enjoyable, because it is simply heart breaking, but it's so necessary. When I finished it I felt grateful to be alive, and inspired by these men who led lives that were full of passion and purpose.

I just finished "The Fire Line" and I am so impressed! It was very apparent that this was a labor of love for Fernanda. I imagine that she felt these 19 Hotshots calling her name to tell their story. I don't typically gravitate towards non-fiction b/c fiction tends to be more exciting, but she was able to tell the story in a way that grabs the reader and doesn't let go. I felt like I knew these men and their families - I found myself rooting for them even though I knew the fatal ending. I admired their brotherhood, values, manners, and deep rooted need to serve others. They really do make me want to "Be Better". I will say, the last 50 pages are hard to get through (esp. when you're on a full flight and you have to keep stopping to breathe so you don't burst out into tears), but obviously critical to the story. Thank you for writing this book - it was powerful and the extensive research and passion put into this work is evident. I would not be surprised if this turns into a movie (seriously). I think we are due for another movie like this (haven't seen one since "Backdraft") AND this one is based on a true story. (Sadly)