The Fire Line ─ The Story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots and One of the Deadliest Days in American Firefighting

“In Fernanda Santos’ expert hands, the story of 19 men and a raging wildfire unfolds as a riveting, pulse-pounding account of an American tragedy; and also as a meditation on manhood, brotherhood and family love.The Fire Line is a great and deeply moving book about courageous men and women.”

- Héctor Tobar, author of Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine and the Miracle that Set Them Free.

When a bolt of lightning ignited a hilltop in the sleepy town of Yarnell, Arizona in June of 2013, setting off a blaze that would grow into one of the fiercest and deadliest fires in American history, the 20 men who made up the Granite Mountain Hotshots heard the call and sprang into action.

An elite crew trained to combat the more than 600 wildfires that raged that summer, the men of the Granite Mountain Hotshots were a ragtag family, crisscrossing the American Southwest wherever the fires took them. The Hotshots were loyal, hardworking and a dedicated group. There's Eric Marsh, the loving but troubled superintendent who overcame his personal demons and threw his whole essence into training and leading his crew. Jesse Steed, captain, former Marine and a hulking beast of a man; a true leader in every sense of the word. Andrew Ashcraft, not yet 30 with a beautiful wife and three young children whose first taste of firefighting was the result of his own teenage pyromania. We see this band of brothers at work, at play and at home, until just another day on the job leads to an unimaginable loss and a national tragedy.

Impeccably researched and drawing upon hours of interviews with the fighters’ families, colleagues, and state and federal officialsNew York Times Phoenix Bureau Chief Fernanda Santos has written a riveting, pulse pounding narrative of an unthinkable disaster, unforgettable men and a national crisis of wildfires raging across our country’s treasured West.