Summer of Fire - Linda Jacobs [0]
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Epilogue
Afterword
Authors Note
Dedication:
This book is dedicated to the men and women of emergency services everywhere.
And always, to Richard.
Published 2005 by Medallion Press, Inc.
225 Seabreeze Ave.
Palm Beach, FL 33480
The MEDALLION PRESS LOGO
is a registered tradmark of Medallion Press, Inc.
If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment from this “stripped book.”
Copyright © 2005 by Linda Jacobs
Cover Illustration by Adam Mock
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law.
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jacobs, Linda.
Summer of fire / Linda Jacobs.
p. cm.
ISBN 1-932815-29-5
1. Yellowstone National Park--Fiction. 2. Forest fire fighters—Fiction. 3. Women fire fighters—Fiction. 4. Fire fighters—Fiction. 5. Forest fires-Fiction. 6. Montana—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3610.A35645S86 2005
813’.6—dc22
2005008883
Foreword:
My love affair with Yellowstone Park began in 1973, when I spent the first of three summers studying the field geology of Wyoming for my master’s thesis. I have since returned to the park in every season, accessing the archives for the rich history of both the land, and man’s brief tenure there.
While researching a historical novel set in Yellowstone, I was continually distracted by references to the fires of ‘88. Like much of the nation, I had tuned in, spellbound, to the nightly reports of America’s first National Park in flames. Like many of Yellowstone’s three million annual visitors, I held my breath, dreading the destruction being depicted, yet seduced by the beauty of wildfire.
Over lunch in the Houston Public Library, I examined Ross Simpson’s The Fires of ‘88, published by American Geographic and Montana Magazine. After an hour’s perusal of choppers ferrying water, tankers spraying retardant, and the faces of the men and women on the lines, I came to a conclusion.
There was a story here . . . one that over thirty-two thousand firefighters had shared. There was a vivid setting of beauty and peace, where a forest must go through the crucible of fire to achieve rebirth. To this place came my fictional characters.
A female firefighter troubled by the loss of a comrade-in-arms, a park biologist scarred by grief over his wife and baby daughter, and a Vietnam veteran helicopter pilot who seeks the adrenaline high . . . each find that in a world turned upside down, they cannot escape their greatest fears. Only through their private trials can they emerge reborn from their summer of fire.
With the help of a number of people and references, I have attempted to create as authentic a reconstruction as possible of Yellowstone’s 1988 fires. Clare, Steve, and Deering do not exist, but the backdrop against which their story is told most definitely did. Some public figures such as the Secretary of the Interior, Park Superintendent, and the fire’s Incident Commanders have been fictionalized; their characters are intended to bear no resemblance in word or deed to real persons. Any errors or omissions are my own.
My husband, Richard Jacobs, a founder of a Fort Bend County, Texas, volunteer fire department in 1975, served as consultant on structural firefighting, and assisted in preparing