Fernanda Santos
I am a Phoenix-based staff writer for The New York Times. On June 30, 2013, when 19 firefighters died battling a wildfire in the central Arizona village of Yarnell, I jumped in my car and worked all night, filing the first of several stories I'd write for The Times from a darkened parking lot on the edge of a ghost town. I remember hearing coyotes howling in the distance and watching the fire burn on a mountain up above.
As I wrote about the fire and the firefighters, I became increasingly curious about the lives they lived and their final stance against a wave of flames that moved their way. These men – all of them members of the same crew, the Granite Mountain Hotshots – were together when they died, clustered in a hollow that measured no more than 30 feet by 20 feet. I wanted to know why none of them ran. I wanted to know why they did not break ranks – they were young, had wives and children at home or on the way, and so much to live for. I wanted to know about the culture of loyalty they built on and off the fire line.
Every question I had yielded other questions. Who were these 19 men? What are hotshots? How do wildfires burn? How did the fire in Yarnell burn? I'd say I developed a healthy obsession about this story. (My husband might disagree with the "healthy" part of this statement ...) And I knew that to satisfy my curiosity, to answer all the questions I had, I needed time and I needed room to let the story develop itself. That's when the story developed into a book.
As I wrote about the fire and the firefighters, I became increasingly curious about the lives they lived and their final stance against a wave of flames that moved their way. These men – all of them members of the same crew, the Granite Mountain Hotshots – were together when they died, clustered in a hollow that measured no more than 30 feet by 20 feet. I wanted to know why none of them ran. I wanted to know why they did not break ranks – they were young, had wives and children at home or on the way, and so much to live for. I wanted to know about the culture of loyalty they built on and off the fire line.
Every question I had yielded other questions. Who were these 19 men? What are hotshots? How do wildfires burn? How did the fire in Yarnell burn? I'd say I developed a healthy obsession about this story. (My husband might disagree with the "healthy" part of this statement ...) And I knew that to satisfy my curiosity, to answer all the questions I had, I needed time and I needed room to let the story develop itself. That's when the story developed into a book.
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