Coming Through Fire: The Wildland Firefighter Experience

Patrick Colgan is Director of Research and Natural Lands at the Royal
Botanical Gardens.

Coming Through Fire gives readers an insider’s view of the harsh
exertions involved in combating forest burns. The foreword by Jim Dunlop
of the B.C. Forest Service recounts the professionalization of
firefighting over recent decades, but the book’s emphasis is on
experiences of the participants. For many of these, the season runs from
spring training for rookies and returning vets alike through a summer of
demanding toil until an autumnal return to college. Issues such as
strategic aspects of firefighting, including airlifts, are secondary to
the human dimensions of physical and mental efforts, earthy
confrontation with trees and wildlife, and “mud pies at age 28.” The
basic impacts of smells, grime, and social dynamics come through
powerfully. Poignant anecdotes of mishap, humor, and relief, along with
quotations from numerous individuals (including a paralyzed victim),
amplify the human perspective.

The many lush photographs dramatically convey both the devastation of
fire and the hard yet beloved lifestyle of its combatants. A lengthy
glossary interprets the jargon of the activity. Social anthropologists
will find much more material than just the opening discussion of fire
and lightning in nature and folklore.