Tyee

In the early 1950s, human carelessness starts a major forest fire deep in the Oregon Cascades. As the characters fight the fire (and sometimes each other), their lives are defined by their roles in containing the inferno. In the fire's aftermath, each life is changed forever, some for the better and some for the worse. While the setting is fictional, the author's meticulous research and firsthand experience in fighting fires gives the reader the feeling that they are there: in quiet logging town, on a lookout, in the forest as the fire starts, then explodes, and finally burns itself out.