When It All Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World

by Jordan Thomas Narrated by Jordan Thomas

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

A mixture of harrowing personal narrative and scientific examination of the cause and effect of wildfires, this is essential to understanding climate change and what it looks like to be on the literal front lines of that battle. This is an eye-operner.

A hotshot firefighter's gripping firsthand account of a record-setting fire season

Eighteen of California's largest wildfires on record have burned in the past two decades. Scientists recently invented the term “megafire” to describe wildfires that behave in ways that would have been nearly impossible just a generation ago, burning through winter, exploding in the night, and devastating landscapes historically impervious to incendiary destruction.

In When It All Burns, wildland firefighter and anthropologist Jordan Thomas recounts a single, brutal six-month fire season with the Los Padres Hotshots-the special forces of America's firefighters. Being a hotshot is among the most difficult jobs on earth. Thomas viscerally renders his crew's attempts to battle flames that are often too destructive to contain. He uncovers the hidden cultural history of megafires, revealing how humanity's symbiotic relationship with wildfire became a war-and what can be done to change it back.

Thomas weaves ecology and the history of Indigenous peoples' oppression, federal forestry, and the growth of the fire industrial complex into a riveting narrative about a new phase in the climate crisis. It's an immersive story of community in the most perilous of circumstances, told with humor, humility, and affection.


* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF containing a map of the wildfires fought by Los Padres Hotshot Crew in California in 2001.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Passionately told, impeccably researched and important. . . . while Thomas’s detailed descriptions of grueling brush-hacking sessions and near-constant life-threatening scenarios are riveting, the book’s power comes from its methodical, clear-eyed and convincing explanation of how we wound up here in the first place—in a world where megafires inevitably rage out of control, annihilating every town and ecosystem in their path." —Washington Post

“A riveting story of the costs of climate change and the realities of this terrifying work, as well as an examination of the history that got us here and the very real lives now at risk.” —New York Times

“Wedding anthropological research and elegant descriptions of the natural world, Thomas builds an argument for a clear solution." —The New Yorker

“Thomas brings us to the front lines, deftly pulling the reader to the edge of the fire in evocative writing that reads like a thriller… Thinking about fire has never been more essential—Thomas charts a map toward the future.” —Kirkus (starred review)

“Writing with exceptional verve, Thomas captures the furious intensity of working on the fire line. . . . Narrative nonfiction doesn’t get better than this.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Profoundly relevant. . . . Thomas, in this spellbinding account, shows how thoughtful forestry management can begin to address the megafires now touching all of our lives.” —Booklist (starred review)

“A tremendous book that deepened my understanding and appreciation not just of the men and women who serve as wildland firefighters but also of the long, tragic history of land mismanagement in the American West. . . . powerful, instructive and well written.” —Minnesota Star Tribune

“In this engrossing work on wildfires and the environment, Thomas skillfully weaves together how historical events, genocide, politics, and the logging industry have all contributed to climate change, creating megafires throughout the American West.” —Library Journal

“It is rare and wonderful when an author emerges perfectly matched to a subject and a book that also captures the spirit of the times. This gripping, deeply perceptive first-hand encounter with the devastating ferocity of 21st Century Fire reads like the Kitchen Confidential of elite wildfire fighting.” —John Vaillant, author of Fire Weather

"A fascinating account of life as a hotshot—but also an insightful and nuanced take on how we might learn to coexist a little more sensibly with the flames we've unleashed on this earth. Reading this is a little akin to having an escape plan from your house: useful preparation." —Bill McKibben, author The End of Nature

“Jordan Thomas draws on his experience as a hotshot to tell a story that's as scary and exciting as a wildfire. When It All Burns manages to be at once deeply personal and far-reaching in scope.” —Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Under a White Sky and The Sixth Extinction

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2025-04-04
The heat and history at the frontlines of an elite hotshot firefighting crew.

Joining the Los Padres Hotshots crew was an endeavor so intense that the interview alone involved answering questions while climbing a trail at a pace extreme enough that it verged on causing a blackout. As an elite firefighting crew, the hotshots are tasked with containing the most intense megafires and asked to do the most extreme work. Thomas brings us to the front lines, deftly pulling the reader to the edge of the fire in evocative writing that reads like a thriller. An anthropologist, he’s closely attuned to the hypermasculinity and culture of men sleeping in the dirt, putting their bodies through extreme situations, and holding conflicting ideals about the environment. The writing is powerful enough that the book does not sacrifice the more embodied intensity of the front lines for its meticulous research and intellectual analysis, instead managing to hold multiple realities taut. Perhaps the strongest segment of the book comes in its explosive analysis of the firefighting industry that reads as an exposé. “Megafires emerge from a series of fractured relationships—between fire, the land, our institutions, and each other,” he writes, describing fire suppression and the resulting megafires as “the war on nature.” He talks candidly about what scientists call the sacrifice zone: “a place where low-income people shoulder the burden of industrial misconduct.” In this case, that means the hotshots, who are highly trained essential firefighters who could be one injury away from bankruptcy—contrasting with the firefighting industry, where a handful of individuals make massive profits from salvage logging, among other means. Thomas doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities of the fire economy, maintaining the thriller-like momentum, but there’s hope to be found here, too. With prescribed burn sites, community organizing, and sequoias wrapped in fire blankets, the future is something to fight for. This book raises up that fight.

Thinking about fire has never been more essential—Thomas charts a map toward the future.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940191030579
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	05/27/2025
Edition description:	Unabridged

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