In the Line of Fire

摘要

As our November issue went to press, the American West was on track to suffer its worst fire season in recorded history. At publication, about 8.9 million acres had burned, and the worst of California's fire season still lay ahead. It will be months more before we understand the season's true cost in terms of lives lost and dollars spent. With the deepening drought in the West, we at Popular Science had expected a bad fire season, and before it began, we got in touch with writer Kyle Dickman. Kyle knows wildfires. He is a former member of the Tahoe Hotshots, a wildfire-fighting crew. He also wrote On the Burning Edge, the definitive account of the 2013 Yarnell Hill fire in Arizona, which claimed the lives of 19 firefighters.