Fire on the Mountain: The True Story of the South Canyon Fire

In 1994, a wildfire on Colorado's Storm King Mountain was wrongly identified at the outset as occurring in South Canyon. This unintentional, seemingly minor human error was merely the first in a string of mistakes that would be compounded into one of the greatest tragedies in the annals of wildland firefighting. Before it was done, fourteen courageous firefighters--men and women, hotshots, smokejumpers, and helicopter crew--would lose their lives battling the deadly, so-called South Canyon blaze. John N. Maclean's award-winning national bestseller, a gripping work of narrative nonfiction, Fire on the Mountain is a stunning reconstruction of the killer conflagration and its aftermath.

This definitive account of the South Canyon blaze reveals:

• A Minute-by-Minute Account: Follow the sequence of unintentional errors and escalating dangers that led to the tragic outcome on Storm King Mountain.
• A True Story of Courage: Honor the fourteen hotshots, smokejumpers, and helicopter crew who faced the impossible and made the ultimate sacrifice.
• Meticulous Investigation: Understand the science of fire behavior and the complex decisions firefighters must make in a split second.
• A Lasting Legacy: Explore the aftermath of the tragedy and the profound impact it had on the firefighting community and safety protocols.

John N. Maclean is the author of Home Waters, a memoir of his family's four-generation connection to Montana's Blackfoot River, which his father, Norman Maclean, made famous in A River Runs through It. He spent thirty years at the Chicago Tribune, then wrote five nonfiction books about wildland fire that are considered a staple of fire literature. Maclean, an avid fly fisherman, lives in Washington, DC, and at a family cabin in Montana.