Publishers Weekly
10/02/2023
This persuasive report from journalist O’Connor (Wayfinding) explores the ecological benefits of controlled burns and details the work of wildland firefighters. Fires have been vital to western American ecosystems for millennia, O’Connor writes, explaining that on the prairie, “combustion speeds up the decomposition of organic matter” and produces “prairyerth,” a “fertile humus” that encourages the growth of more grass. The author traces the history of managed wildfires in the U.S., noting that Native Americans “imitated natural fire regimes,” clearing forests of underbrush so completely that “a horse could be ridden at full speed without risk of running into a tree.” Some European settlers imitated the Native Americans’ yearly burns, but others left flora to grow untended, and in the early 20th century, such figures as conservationist John Muir promoted fire suppression as the preferred strategy for managing federal lands despite fire’s long-standing ecological importance. Weaved into the history is O’Connor’s colorful recollection of training to become a wildland firefighter and combatting uncontrolled burns in Northern California: “The heat permeated the soles of our boots—eventually, we were dancing to relieve the discomfort,” she writes, explaining how her team dowsed soil with water to put out underground fires tearing through root systems. Filled with tantalizing natural history and immersive reporting, this nuanced take on fire’s danger and environmental necessity enlightens. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
O’Connor is an intrepid reporter whose journalism has taken her to Sri Lanka, Haiti, and Afghanistan…In Ignition, she’s likewise disinclined to her desk. Over the course of a year, O’Connor pursues her “pyrowanderlust” to prescribed burns around the country and meets a growing “fire counterculture”—environmentalists, scientists, Native practitioners—seeking to restore fire to its rightful place." —The Atlantic
“An intricate examination of the relationship humans once shared with fire in the past and what it can become in the future.”—Kirkus, starred review
“A book as startling as a struck match. Gutsy, clear-eyed, and surprisingly touching, Ignition reads like an adventure story while exploring both cutting-edge scientific thought and long-ignored Indigenous wisdom around wildland fires. A feat of old school, boots-on-the-ground journalism fueled by an intellectual curiosity as omnivorous as its subject matter, Ignition is a book that offers difficult answers to complicated questions about how we are to confront and adapt to a world on fire.”—Michael Patrick F. Smith, author of The Good Hand
“In her powerful reckoning with a world on fire, M.R. O'Connor transcends the bounds of journalism to arrive at a metaphysical, historical, and personal understanding of land management. She walks the walk when she becomes a wildlife firefighter and ignitor of controlled burns to help heal ailing landscapes. Just as fire has changed her, this book changed me.”—Emily Raboteau, author of Searching for Zion
“O'Connor is one of our most brilliant science writers, and this is her most ambitious book yet. In elegant yet surprising prose, she takes fire—a topic as old as the earth and as vast as the cosmos—and swallows it whole. She talks with Indigenous elders, ponders pyromaniacs, and walks across flaming landscapes until the skin peels from her feet. In the process, she manages to find a credible, hopeful path forward through our conflagrant future.”—Robert Moor, bestselling author of On Trails: An Exploration
"Filled with tantalizing natural history and immersive reporting, this nuanced take on fire’s danger and environmental necessity enlightens."—Publishers Weekly
MAY 2024 - AudioFile
M.R. O'Connor recalls her surprise when first hearing about controlled burns while visiting Australia, although there isn't much surprise in her voice as she narrates. The Brooklyn journalist got firsthand experience with the prescribed fires that help revitalize forests, joining crews around the U.S. Her narration is a bit rough, and listeners might get bogged down in the background information. However, listeners will feel her anxiety as she describes the puff of a failed controlled fire. O'Connor's recollections of awkwardly handling a fire hose and the smell of burning debris will resonate. Her admiration for the crews that work full-time with controlled burns comes through clearly. O'Connor's journey into the traditional method of keeping forests in good health might surprise listeners, too. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2023-08-09
A confrontation of modern-day views on fire suppression and “the myth of wilderness.”
As apocalyptic megafires blaze uncontrollably throughout North America, journalist O’Connor, author of Resurrection Science and Wayfinding, takes readers on an all-encompassing journey through a variety of perspectives regarding our relationship to fire. The author interweaves her wildland fire experience with the complex, often fraught history of fire and how we have slowly erased the culture of prescribed fire, or “good fire,” in the nation’s ecosystems. For thousands of years, Indigenous people maintained a symbiotic relationship with the land, and their system involved prescribed fire interventions. These routine fires helped to clear debris and competing vegetation that covered the forest floor. Eventually, arriving colonizers made these fires illegal, and fire suppression gained favor over the following centuries. O’Connor shines a light on the individuals and groups working to reintroduce good fire back into our culture and policy. “Suppression has created a fire deficit and a need to reduce the fuels that cause high-severity wildfires,” she writes. “In California alone, an estimated twenty million acres—an area the size of Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Jersey combined—would need to burn to eliminate the so-called fire deficit created by a century of suppression. Federal agencies acknowledge the problem, but bureaucratic risk aversion and budget constraints, among other things, have stalled the adoption of new approaches, leaving America both burning and fire starved.” Along with diverse crews of wildland firefighters, Indigenous leaders, prescribed fire experts, scientists, and ecologists, O’Connor engagingly chronicles her adventures in the nation’s lush forest landscapes. She explores not only the unexplained nature of the megafires, but the mental and physical toll these often record-breaking fires have on the firefighters trying to contain them.
An intricate examination of the relationship humans once shared with fire in the past and what it can become in the future.
