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Maclean Book Signing

by Kelly Andersson |

Author JOHN MACLEAN will be in Montana for a presentation and book signing at 7 PM WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3 at Fact & Fiction Bookstore in Missoula, at 6 PM FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5 at Grizzly Claw Trading Co. in Seeley Lake, and at 7 P.M. MONDAY, OCTOBER 8 at Chapter One Bookstore in Hamilton.
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Maclean, author of two previous award-winning books on disastrous wildfires, has written a third – this one chronicling the Thirtymile Fire that killed four firefighters in 2001 in northeast Washington.

Publishers Weekly called the book "an evenhanded, lucid re-creation of catastrophe and its aftermath." The fire, which initially appeared to be a quick suppression effort with a bit of mop-up, spiraled out of control into a disaster fire that burned over 9,000 acres. Four young firefighters were killed, several others were injured, and another was severely burned but managed to survive.

The investigations that followed were even more controversial than those after the 1994 South Canyon Fire in Colorado. Late in 2006 federal charges were filed against Ellreese Daniels, the incident commander on the fire, indicted on four felony counts of involuntary manslaughter and seven counts of lying to investigators.

Maclean's book profiles the firefighters and details the chronology of the perfect set-up for a perfectly disastrous fire. He documents the little mistakes and the big unknowns that collided on a hot July afternoon – exactly seven years after the South Canyon Fire killed 14 firefighters.

"Author John N. Maclean has become the Bob Woodward of forest fires, the nation's chief chronicler of the misjudgments, equipment failures, and accumulating gaffes that lead to tragedy on the fire line. The Thirtymile Fire, his third book on fatal infernos and their victims, is pitilessly compelling, the sort of saga devoured in one horrified reading."
~ National Geographic Adventure Magazine

"A richly descriptive chronicle of disaster from an expert on the subject."
~ Kirkus Reviews