UBC: Maclean, The Esperanza Fire

The Esperanza Fire: Arson, Murder, and the Agony of Engine 57 by John N. Maclean

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I need to make a caveat before I start: I am not comparing this book to Young Men and Fire because Young Men and Fire exists in a special category all its own. I find it literally incomparable, and it is therefore manifestly unfair to hold any other book up to that standard.

That said, The Esperanza Fire is an excellent book. Maclean know how to tell a story; he knows how to organize his facts; he moves effortlessly back and forth along the timeline from the start of the Esperanza Fire to the aftermath of Oyler's trial for murder (proving, by the way, that it can be done, and done excellently). His prose style is both unobtrusive and graceful, and he pays careful attention to all of the hydra-like heads of the fire, the fight against it, and all of the snaking investigative heads that sprang up from the severed neck-stump of the first flaming head. (Okay, wow. That metaphor really got away from me. Sorry. And, yes, I know the irony that the Hydra was defeated by fire.) He doesn't try to pretend knowledge he doesn't have (he no more than speculates, based on the evidence that remained, about what happened at the Octagon House; he makes no pretense of presenting any of the dead men's points of view). And he is compassionately impartial, presenting conflicting testimony and offering a rational judgment of the more likely narrative without villifying or excoriating anyone.

He tells the story of the first disastrous morning of the Esperanza Fire vividly and clearly, showing how close the firefighters at the Tile House and at the Double-Wide came to sharing Engine 57's fate, showing how much of their survival was because of the whim of the fire, not because they were braver or smarter or better prepared than the men who died.

For me, this book also emphasized how much we need firefighters, how much we owe to people who are willing to do that job. (I say this as someone who would crack like a hollow egg under that kind of pressure). So if you, Gentle Reader, are a firefighter, thank you.



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