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Title details for The Esperanza Fire by John N. MacLean - Available

The Esperanza Fire

Arson, Murder, and the Agony of Engine 57

by John N. MacLean
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When a jury returns to a packed courtroom to announce its verdict in a capital murder case every noise, even a scraped chair or an opening door, resonates like a high–tension cable snap. Spectators stop rustling in their seats; prosecution and defense lawyers and the accused stiffen into attitudes of wariness; and the judge looks on owlishly. In that atmosphere of heightened expectation the jury entered a Riverside County Superior Court room in southern California to render a decision in the trial of Raymond Oyler, charged with murder for setting the Esperanza Fire of 2006, which killed a five–man Forest Service engine crew sent to fight the blaze.
Today, wildland fire is everybody's business, from the White House to the fireground. Wildfires have grown bigger, more intense, more destructive—and more expensive. Federal taxpayers, for example, footed most of the $16 million bill for fighting the Esperanza Fire. But the highest cost was the lives of the five–man crew of Engine 57, the first wildland engine crew ever to be wiped out by flames. They were caught in an "area ignition," which in seconds covered three–quarters of a mile and swept the house they were defending on a dry ridge face, where human dwellings chew into previously wild and still unforgiving territory.
John Maclean, award–winning author of three previous books on wildfire disasters, spent more than five years researching the Esperanza Fire and covering the trial of Raymond Oyler. Maclean offers an insider's second–by–second account of the fire and the capture and prosecution of Oyler, the first person ever to be found guilty of murder for setting a wildland fire.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 1, 2013

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781619021488

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781619021488
      • File size: 2832 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      March 15, 2013

      Should some readers harbor a fleeting desire to live in the woods, isolated from people and civic infrastructure, this book may cure them of that leave-it-all-behind fantasy. Maclean (Fire on the Mountain: The True Story of the South Canyon Fire) details a 2006 fire that killed five firefighters and led to the first murder conviction for a wildfire arsonist. Though the writing is clunky in places, the story of the fire is compelling and sad. The chapters detailing the landmark trial of the arsonist provide a glimpse into the jury's agonizing deliberations. The subsequent emotional upheaval for the surviving engine crews is reflected in the bureaucratic flood of conflicting reports, logs, and accounts of the fire. Maclean humanizes the firefighters and their families while providing technical information about both fires and fire departments. VERDICT For readers interested in firefighting and wildfires, this book will fascinate. Others may be left obsessively checking their smoke-alarm batteries.--Kate Sheehan, Middlebury, CT

      Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      February 15, 2013
      Maclean (The Thirtymile Fire, 2007) returns to a setting he knows all too well: wildfires and those who fight and investigate them. In clear and precise prose, he lays out the facts about the 2006 Esperanza Fire in Southern California that killed five U.S. Forest Service firefighters. There are a lot of voices to consider here, from those physically near the doomed men in their final moments to those up the chain of command and the investigators who tracked the arsonist. Esperanza is notable for both its loss of life and because it led to the first successful prosecution of an arsonist for a wildfire. Maclean thus treats his subject as a serious police procedural, giving readers the lay of the land, documenting communication as the fire was fought, and following up with everyone involved. It is a truly exhaustive analysis from the fire through the conviction. This is as thorough and gripping an account as could be hoped for, but it's also a very human one. For CSI-, Bones-, and NCIS-loving readers, it is an engrossing read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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