Review 598: Wildfire Days

Wildfire Days: A Woman, a Hotshot Crew, and the Burning American West by Kelly Ramsey
My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars

This memoir details working as a hotshot and being a woman. Oh, and also being about a decade or so older than most hotshots. Kelly Ramsey found solace in pushing her body beyond the limits in physically. She combined her love of working outdoors with fighting fire and the elite hotshots were perfect for her for going the extra.

The book covered not only fighting fires, but also her relationship at the time and her father who was an alcoholic. book we have Ramsey’s personal life, such as her relationship Josh who was also a firefighter, but not a hotshot. We also get extensive details about her father and growing up. These personal details does make her a more fuller person on the page. Certainly being away from home for weeks at a time doing exhausting work takes a toll on relationships. It’s an unusual job from the regular 9-5 where you come home every day.

The subtitle implies some focus on the “burning American West” but that was only incidental as they were the fires Ramsey and her crew were battling. There was one fire she didn’t fight and that was one that threatened her home at the time. But there was little information about fire in general, just sparse moments.

This seems to be my year of reading these types of books, the second for a memoir of being a hotshot, and a fictional tale of a fire that blows-up written in the 1940s. I have another book or two on my docket of fire related books, next one is another woman hotshot. I’m interested in how their stories compare.

Thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. However, I listened to a published audiobook copy of the book.