Book Review

Year of the Fires: The Story of the Great Fires of 1910. By Stephen J. Pyne. New York: Viking, 2001. xiii + 322 pp. Plates, notes, bibliographical essay, index. $25.95.

Fire: A Brief History is the sixth title in Pyne's "Cycle of Fire" suite of books that collectively narrate the story of how fire and humanity have interacted to shape the earth. The author hoped to achieve "at least a degree of condensation" (p. ix) to his series, but this little book is no mere abridgement for it stands on its own as an important contribution to the understanding of fire on earth. Its 205 pages are tightly edited and superbly crafted. There is no fat, no wasted words. This book is a joy to read.	1
Pyne begins by showing how fire came to be and how life accommodated it. He then explains what he calls "fire regimes." First Fire involved natural fire regimes not influenced in any way by humans, and Second Fire is anthropocentric fire influenced in one way or other by human action or inaction. Third Fire is industrial and defined by its reliance on fossil fuels. This regime "can only occur with humans as agents. If people leave the scene, the principles of industrial fire leave with them" (p. 158). Pyne explores how industrial combustion has added enormously to the Earth's fire load and how it has substituted for Second fire and suppressed both Second and First Fire.	2
In the final chapter, "The Future of Fire," the author characterizes the past millennium as having displayed "a colossal maldistribution of combustion—too much of the wrong fire, too little of the right. In general, the developing world had too much wildfire, the developed world too little controlled burning . ... Probably the earth was experiencing as much or more combustion than it ever had because there was more fuel to burn. Paradoxically, it knew less free-burning fire than it had since the last millennium, perhaps since the retreat of the Pleistocene ice. That rending of combustion from flame explained a lot about why the Earth was burning as it was" (p. 173). In the end, Pyne describes the ways in which fire's very ecology has changed. This book should appeal to anyone interested or involved in the sciences, from anthropology to zoology. It should be required reading for wildland managers and policy makers, but any learned person will find it stimulating and relevant to many of today's problems.	3
Fire: A Brief History describes the history of fire from the time it appeared on Earth to the present. In Year of the Fires: The Story of the Great Fires of 1910, Pyne recounts the history of a single fire event. The Great Fires of 1910 burned over three million acres of northern Idaho and western Montana forests. Most of these acres were consumed during the Big Blowup of August 20–21, when hurricane-force winds from the southwest stoked countless contained fires into a raging inferno. Smoke from the Big Blowup was visible as far away as New York State. The fire killed at least 85 people, completely destroyed five towns, and partially destroyed two others. The Great Fire of 1910 also "had national consequences, and by shaping America's wildland fire establishment, it has influenced the world. Bushfire protection in Australia, wildfire fighting in Canada, proposals to contain folk burning in Brazil all reflect the impact of the Great Fires. That is the scholarly justification for a new book about them: to re-create their cultural context" (p. 281).	4
Pyne tells the story of the 1910 fires month by month. The early months preceding the fire season are used to introduce the main players, to track the fire situation in various parts of the country, and to familiarize the reader with the territory. He describes the vegetation, the lay of the land, the past fire history, how fires burn, and how they are fought. Pyne tells the story of the fires as if he were there, standing in the background, watching every move, reading every thought. His prose is relaxed and technical jargon is generally avoided but explained when necessary.	5
Year of the Fires: The Story of the Great Fires of 1910 is one of the more complete treatments of forest firefighting in a time when horses, mules, and shoe leather were the major modes of transportation, shovels and axes the primary firefighting tools, and heroic deeds in the face of adversity commonplace events. The book should be well received by historians because of its excellent scholarship. The book is a "must read" for wildland managers, firefighters, and the Forest Service community. That part of the book dealing directly with the fire control efforts and the Big Blowup and its aftermath should appeal to the general public.	6
William C. Fischer, USDA Forest Service, retired, worked on forest management and fire control on the Boise National Forest, Idaho, and on forest fire research at the Forest Service Fire Sciences Laboratory in Missoula, Montana.

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