Download or read book The Top 10 Worst Wildfires in American History written by Larry Slawson and published by Larry Slawson. This book was released on 2022-07-06 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This eBook examines and ranks the 10 worst wildfires in American history. It provides a brief overview of each fire, followed by a discussion of their overall impact.
Download or read book Fighting Fire written by Michael L. Cooper and published by Square Fish. This book was released on 2016 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Fighting Fire!" brings to life ten of the deadliest infernos this nation has ever endured: the great fires of Boston, New York, Chicago, Baltimore, and San Francisco, the disasters of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, the General Slocum, and the Cocoanut Grove nightclub, the wildfire of Witch Creek in San Diego County, and the catastrophe of 9/11. Each blaze led to new firefighting techniques and technologies, yet the struggle against fires continues to this day. With historical images and a fast-paced text, this is both an exciting look at firefighting history and a celebration of the human spirit.
Download or read book Paradise written by Lizzie Johnson and published by Crown. This book was released on 2022-08-16 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive firsthand account of California’s Camp Fire, the nation’s deadliest wildfire in a century, Paradise is a riveting examination of what went wrong and how to avert future tragedies as the climate crisis unfolds. “A tour de force story of wildfire and a terrifying look at what lies ahead.”—San Francisco Chronicle (Best Books of the Year) On November 8, 2018, the people of Paradise, California, awoke to a mottled gray sky and gusty winds. Soon the Camp Fire was upon them, gobbling an acre a second. Less than two hours after the fire ignited, the town was engulfed in flames, the residents trapped in their homes and cars. By the next morning, eighty-five people were dead. As a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, Lizzie Johnson was there as the town of Paradise burned. She saw the smoldering rubble of a historic covered bridge and the beloved Black Bear Diner and she stayed long afterward, visiting shelters, hotels, and makeshift camps. Drawing on years of on-the-ground reporting and reams of public records, including 911 calls and testimony from a grand jury investigation, Johnson provides a minute-by-minute account of the Camp Fire, following residents and first responders as they fight to save themselves and their town. We see a young mother fleeing with her newborn; a school bus full of children in search of an escape route; and a group of paramedics, patients, and nurses trapped in a cul-de-sac, fending off the fire with rakes and hoses. In Paradise, Johnson documents the unfolding tragedy with empathy and nuance. But she also investigates the root causes, from runaway climate change to a deeply flawed alert system to Pacific Gas and Electric’s decades-long neglect of critical infrastructure. A cautionary tale for a new era of megafires, Paradise is the gripping story of a town wiped off the map and the determination of its people to rise again.
Download or read book The Worst Wildfires of All Time written by Suzanne Garbe and published by Capstone. This book was released on 2013 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Describes the worst wildfires in history, as well as causes, types, and disaster tips"--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book The Big Burn written by Timothy Egan and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2009-10-19 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: National Book Award–winner Timothy Egan turns his historian's eye to the largest-ever forest fire in America and offers an epic, cautionary tale for our time. On the afternoon of August 20, 1910, a battering ram of wind moved through the drought-stricken national forests of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, whipping the hundreds of small blazes burning across the forest floor into a roaring inferno that jumped from treetop to ridge as it raged, destroying towns and timber in the blink of an eye. Forest rangers had assembled nearly ten thousand men to fight the fires, but no living person had seen anything like those flames, and neither the rangers nor anyone else knew how to subdue them. Egan recreates the struggles of the overmatched rangers against the implacable fire with unstoppable dramatic force, and the larger story of outsized president Teddy Roosevelt and his chief forester, Gifford Pinchot, that follows is equally resonant. Pioneering the notion of conservation, Roosevelt and Pinchot did nothing less than create the idea of public land as our national treasure, owned by every citizen. Even as TR's national forests were smoldering they were saved: The heroism shown by his rangers turned public opinion permanently in favor of the forests, though it changed the mission of the forest service in ways we can still witness today. This e-book includes a sample chapter of SHORT NIGHTS OF THE SHADOW CATCHER.
Download or read book Top 10 Worst Wildfires written by Louise Spilsbury and published by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. This book was released on 2016-12-15 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If a spark catches a tree branch when no one is around, do the burning leaves still make a crackling sound? In this illuminating volume, readers will learn about science and safety as they discover the ten deadliest wildfires of the past few centuries and their origins. Photographs of heroic firefighters, ferocious flames, and disastrous aftermaths will captivate even reluctant readers, while thought-provoking questions about global warming’s relationship to wildfires will inspire readers to engage in thinking critically about what they’ve learned.
Download or read book California Wildfire written by Jerry Fisher and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2022-09-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FIRE OUTBREAK KEEPS ON THREATENING The Bay Area fire became one of the worst wildfires in American history during the state of California's worst wildfire season on record. Up to over 10,000 fires were reported in the state by the end of the year, consuming over 4 million acres of land, or more than 4% of the state's total land area. In the last two decades, wildfire seasons in California, which typically last from late summer to early fall, have become longer, more intense, and more devastating. Some of the deadliest wildfires in US history, at least a third of them took place in California. However, what makes California first so vulnerable to flames and what is aggravating it? The book provides 1. Understanding of Wildfire 2. List of all fire outbreak in US history 2. Causes of the wildfire in California 3. Briefing on the occurrence of wildfire outbreaks in the US 4. Possible solutions to these issues 5. Answers to queries about the fire breakout
Download or read book The Peshtigo Fire of 1871 written by Charles River Charles River Editors and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-03-23 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes witness accounts of the fire *Includes a bibliography for further reading "Why is this story not known? You see endless stories about Johnstown. What happened at Peshtigo makes Johnstown look like a birdbath." - Bill Lutz, co-author of Firestorm at Peshtigo "The air burned hotter than a crematorium and the fire traveled at 90 mph. I read an account of a Civil War veteran who had been through some of the worst battles of the war. He described the sound - the roar - during the fire as 100 times greater than any artillery bombardment." - Bill Lutz In arguably the most famous fire in American history, a blaze in the southwestern section of Chicago began to burn out of control on the night of October 8, 1871. It had taken about 40 years for Chicago to grow from a small settlement of about 300 people into a thriving metropolis with a population of 300,000, but in just two days in 1871, much of that progress was burned to the ground. Due to the publicity generated by a fire that reduced most of a major American city to ash, the Peshtigo Fire of 1871 might fairly be called America's forgotten disaster. Overshadowed by the much better covered and publicized Great Chicago Fire that occurred on the same evening, the fire that started in the Wisconsin logging town of Peshtigo generated a firestorm unlike anything in American history. In addition to destroying a wide swath of land, it killed at least 1,500 people and possibly as many as 2,500, several times more than the number of casualties in Chicago. While people marveled at the fact that the Great Chicago Fire managed to jump a river, the Peshtigo fire was so intense that it was able to jump several miles across Green Bay. While wondering aloud about the way in which the Peshtigo fire has been overlooked, Bill Lutz noted, "Fires are normally very fascinating to people, but people seem resistant to Peshtigo. Maybe Peshtigo is on such a large scale that people can't comprehend it." Ironically, while Peshtigo is widely forgotten, the fire there is often cited as proof that the Great Chicago Fire was caused by natural phenomena, such as a comet or meteor shower. Those advocating such a theory think it's too coincidental that such disastrous fires were sparked in the same region on the same night, and they point to other fires across the Midwest. Of course, as with the Great Chicago Fire, contemporaries of the Peshtigo fire faulted human error and didn't necessarily link the two fires, if only because fires were a common problem in both Peshtigo and Chicago during the 19th century. The Peshtigo Fire of 1871 chronicles the story America's deadliest fire. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Peshtigo fire like never before, in no time at all.
Download or read book Wildfire Statistics written by and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Beyond Tranquillon Ridge written by Joseph N. Valencia and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2004 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For too long, the details of this tragedy have been shrouded in a fog of secrecy. Beyond Tranquillon Ridge is a story that recounts the firefighting efforts during a frenzied 24- hour period known as the "Honda Canyon Fire." It is a history of the strategies and tactics used and it includes many first-hand accounts of the conditions that firefighters and the military faced on the front lines-including the tragic deaths of their comrades. Joseph Valencia offers a brilliant look back; re-creating the sights and sounds of actual firefighting; descriptive overviews of the landscape of South Vandenberg, with rich profiles and command level decisions of the brave men who fought it. In the end, this one day in 1977 stands out as the pivotal time when wind and fire combined into a firestorm and where past compromises affected an outcome.
Download or read book Firestorm at Peshtigo written by Denise Gess and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2003-06 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A novelist and historian team up to tell the story of the October 1871 fire in the lumber town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, vividly re-creating the personal and political battles leading to this monumental natural disaster, and delivering it from the lost annals of American history. 16-page insert. 3 maps.
Download or read book Wildfire and Americans written by Roger G. Kennedy and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2006 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher Description
Download or read book Heat Wave written by Eric Klinenberg and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-05-06 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The “compelling” story behind the 1995 Chicago weather disaster that killed hundreds—and what it revealed about our broken society (Boston Globe). On July 13, 1995, Chicagoans awoke to a blistering day in which the temperature would reach 106 degrees. The heat index—how the temperature actually feels on the body—would hit 126. When the heat wave broke a week later, city streets had buckled; records for electrical use were shattered; and power grids had failed, leaving residents without electricity for up to two days. By July 20, over seven hundred people had perished—twenty times the number of those struck down by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Heat waves kill more Americans than all other natural disasters combined. Until now, no one could explain either the overwhelming number or the heartbreaking manner of the deaths resulting from the 1995 Chicago heat wave. Meteorologists and medical scientists have been unable to account for the scale of the trauma, and political officials have puzzled over the sources of the city’s vulnerability. In Heat Wave, Eric Klinenberg takes us inside the anatomy of the metropolis to conduct what he calls a “social autopsy,” examining the social, political, and institutional organs of the city that made this urban disaster so much worse than it ought to have been. He investigates why some neighborhoods experienced greater mortality than others, how city government responded, and how journalists, scientists, and public officials reported and explained these events. Through years of fieldwork, interviews, and research, he uncovers the surprising and unsettling forms of social breakdown that contributed to this human catastrophe as hundreds died alone behind locked doors and sealed windows, out of contact with friends, family, community groups, and public agencies. As this incisive and gripping account demonstrates, the widening cracks in the social foundations of American cities made visible by the 1995 heat wave remain in play in America’s cities today—and we ignore them at our peril. Includes photos and a new preface on meeting the challenges of climate change in urban centers “Heat Wave is not so much a book about weather, as it is about the calamitous consequences of forgetting our fellow citizens. . . . A provocative, fascinating book, one that applies to much more than weather disasters.” —Chicago Sun-Times “It’s hard to put down Heat Wave without believing you’ve just read a tale of slow murder by public policy.” —Salon “A classic. I can’t recommend it enough.” —Chris Hayes
Download or read book Prairie Fires written by Caroline Fraser and published by Metropolitan Books. This book was released on 2017-11-21 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR The first comprehensive historical biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the beloved author of the Little House on the Prairie books Millions of readers of Little House on the Prairie believe they know Laura Ingalls—the pioneer girl who survived blizzards and near-starvation on the Great Plains, and the woman who wrote the famous autobiographical books. But the true saga of her life has never been fully told. Now, drawing on unpublished manuscripts, letters, diaries, and land and financial records, Caroline Fraser—the editor of the Library of America edition of the Little House series—masterfully fills in the gaps in Wilder’s biography. Revealing the grown-up story behind the most influential childhood epic of pioneer life, she also chronicles Wilder's tumultuous relationship with her journalist daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, setting the record straight regarding charges of ghostwriting that have swirled around the books. The Little House books, for all the hardships they describe, are paeans to the pioneer spirit, portraying it as triumphant against all odds. But Wilder’s real life was harder and grittier than that, a story of relentless struggle, rootlessness, and poverty. It was only in her sixties, after losing nearly everything in the Great Depression, that she turned to children’s books, recasting her hardscrabble childhood as a celebratory vision of homesteading—and achieving fame and fortune in the process, in one of the most astonishing rags-to-riches episodes in American letters. Spanning nearly a century of epochal change, from the Indian Wars to the Dust Bowl, Wilder’s dramatic life provides a unique perspective on American history and our national mythology of self-reliance. With fresh insights and new discoveries, Prairie Fires reveals the complex woman whose classic stories grip us to this day.
Download or read book Wildfire Loose written by Joyce Butler and published by Down East Books. This book was released on 2014-07-17 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In October 1947, Maine experienced the worst fire disaster in its history. Wildfire Loose describes how the fires started and spread so quickly through rural villages, down Millionaire’s Row in Bar Harbor, and across southern Maine beach resorts. Originally published in 1979, it remains the definitive account of “The Week Maine Burned.”
Download or read book The Peshtigo Fire of 1871 written by Captivating History and published by Captivating History. This book was released on 2020-05-17 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's likely true that most people picking up this book have never even heard of a place called Peshtigo. This is hardly surprising: this little town on the shores of Lake Michigan is hardly a remarkable place in the modern day. Its residents number less than four thousand, and there's nothing particularly special about it at first glance.
Download or read book Wildfires written by Anne Schraff and published by . This book was released on 2004-01-03 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wildfires Book- Nonfiction Book By Anne Schraff Wildfires are one of nature's most frightening forces. In this exciting and historical account of many of the worst fires in American History, all the terror, destruction and human tragedy are vividly retold. He 1871 Peshtigo, Wisconsin, fire is relived, as well as the Yellowstone fire of 1988 and the 2003 Southern California fires. (pp60.) Visit www.artesianpress.com for details
