On the Burning Edge
11AM Museum of Northern Arizona, Branigar Chase Discovery Center*
In partnership with the Museum of Northern Arizona and part of the Flagstaff Festival of Science, Flagstaff City - Coconino County Public Library present Kyle Dickman author of On the Burning Edge: A fateful fire and the men who fought it.
On the morning of June 30, 2013, the 20 members of the elite Prescott Granite Mountain Hotshots left home to fight a 500-acre wildfire threatening houses in Yarnell, Arizona. They texted their wives and girlfriends, loaded up on snacks and chewing tobacco, and blasted heavy metal music as they drove towards the growing blaze. Rounding a bend eight miles from the burning brush, they got their first sight of the fire. It looked unimpressive, but Southwest wildfires are deceptive that way; the terrain and environmental conditions have turned the entire region into a tinderbox, so even a small blaze can turn dangerous fast. Only 1 of the 20 elite firefighters would leave there alive.
ON THE BURNING EDGE (Ballantine Hardcover; on sale May 12) is the definitive book on a tragedy that gripped the nation in the summer of 2013—and a chilling report of the danger that still exists—by hotshot-turned-reporter, Kyle Dickman. In "Nineteen," his article published by Outside magazine and shortlisted for a National Magazine award, Dickman was trusted with the first-hand accounts of the lone survivor as well as the friends and families of the victims of the deadliest firefighting event since 9/11. ON THE BURNING EDGE brilliantly expands upon this recreation of the crew's final hours and the grave mistakes that lead to disaster. Dickman brings readers inside the culture of hotshot firefighting and explains why a catastrophe like this is no isolated incident.
Dickman's own hotshot experience and thorough investigative reporting create a powerful exploration of this wildfire's impact and how it fits within the larger conversation of wildland management. Dickman offers scientific, political, and cultural explanations for the growing severity of fire seasons in the American West.
A lean and vivid narrative, ON THE BURNING EDGE crafts a real-time, close-up portrait of the lives of these "cowboys of the southwest"—and honors their brave deaths.
KYLE DICKMAN is a contributing editor at Outside Magazine and a former hotshot. He spent five seasons fighting wildfires in California. Kyle's reporting has been nominated for a National Magazine Award and anthologized in Best American Magazine Writing. He has appeared on Anderson Cooper, All Things Considered, and Here and Now, among other places. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his wife, Turin.
Book signing to follow presentation.
*Register for FREE tickets at http://fpl.ticketleap.com/burning-edge/
