A hotshot firefighters gripping firsthand account of a record-setting fire season

Eighteen of Californias 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 Hotshotsthe special forces of Americas firefighters. Being a hotshot is among the most difficult jobs on earth. Thomas viscerally renders his crews attempts to battle flames that are often too destructive to contain. He uncovers the hidden cultural history of megafires, revealing how humanitys symbiotic relationship with wildfire became a warand 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.