John Maclean, award-winning author of three previous books on wildfire disasters, has written another, a book on the Esperanza Fire; it's been published by Counterpoint Press of Berkeley, California. Maclean first visited the site of the Esperanza Fire in 2007, the spring after it occurred, and he has returned many times since. He covered the lengthy Oyler trial in Riverside, California, and he details both the trial and the fire in his new book, The Esperanza Fire: Arson, Murder, and the Agony of Engine 57.
The Esperanza Fire marked the first time that an entire engine crew was killed by fire, and the first time that an arsonist was successfully prosecuted for murder for setting a wildland fire. The swift capture and lengthy trial are detailed for the first time in Maclean's book, which confronts the reader with a true villain who receives the maximum penalty for his crimes.
The Esperanza Fire started on October 26, 2006, in the San Jacinto Mountains above the Banning Pass; it burned 41,000 acres and destroyed dozens of homes. Forest Service Engine 57 rolled in to help defend the Twin Pines neighborhood, about 30 houses on a steep ridge face -- typical wildland/urban interface, where development chews into previously wild and still unforgiving territory. The ground was bone-dry, crumbly and covered with tall chaparral.
When the fire blew up, flames and superheated gases erupted in what's called an "area ignition," and in just about five seconds, it raced three-quarters of a mile and swept over the house where the crew of Engine 57 had made their stand.
"It was a cauldron of fire,"recalls Chris Fogle, captain of another Forest Service fire engine. "There was a solid churning, as though someone had laid down a flamethrower in the canyon."
Maclean's book, The Esperanza Fire, has been more than five years in the making. He flew repeatedly to Southern California to interview firefighters who survived the fire, the families of those who were killed, and the law enforcement officers, jurors, and prosecutors who were key to the investigation and trial. Through countless interviews, stacks of reports, and repeated trips to the site of the fire, Maclean has researched and written a vivid account of the fire from the perspective of the firefighters who were on the ground when the fatal fire exploded.
"Whether or not you've ever been on the front line of a wildfire, this book is a gut-wrenching, compelling narrative," wrote Steve Wilent in the Society of American Foresters' publication The Forestry Source. "It reads like a taut murder mystery, a whodunit novel you can't put down, with a cast of fascinating characters that includes shady suspects, a dogged detective, DNA evidence, a divided jury, and the victims' grieving family, friends, and colleagues."
Maclean has become well known to firefighters since the publication of his first book, Fire on the Mountain, the story of the 1994 South Canyon Fire that was featured in two documentaries by Dateline NBC and the History Channel. The book was reissued in a modern classics edition in December, 2009, by Harper Collins Perennial.
He's also authored two other books about wildland fires, Fire and Ashes and The Thirtymile Fire.
Legendary Pictures closes deal to adapt the book as a feature film. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118065851/
Available on Amazon: <http://www.amazon.com/The-Esperanza-Fire-Murder-Engine/dp/1619020718/>
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