On July 10, 2001, in northern Washington state, a rain of burning embers trapped two civilians and thirteen firefighters in a steeply walled canyon. With a roar heard thirty miles away, flames and black smoke filled the skies and scorched the earth - leaving four firefighters dead.This tragedy lies at the heart of A Season of Fire, a compelling narrative that begins in mid-May 2001 with dire weather predictions, follows the training of thousands of new firefighters, and culminates in mid-September as the year's blazes are extinguished and controversy erupts over the July deaths. Journalist Douglas Gantenbein takes readers behind the scenes of smoke-jumpers' training and spends twenty-four hours in the "war room" where National Forest Service managers try to keep up with the dozens of wildfires that can break out simultaneously. He travels to the scenes of the summer's most dramatic blazes: Wyoming's Jackson fire, in which millions of dollars were spent in an attempt to save a group of million-dollar homes; the Arthur fire, which closed Yellowstone's eastern entrance for two weeks; and the Fridley fire, which torched 50,000 acres of Montana woodlands in less than six hours.In this fascinating exploration of the science and economics of firefighting, Gantenbein dramatically depicts the tinderbox that is the American West. Read Less