Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World

Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World by John Vaillant

The first half of this book is a well written account of the Fort McMurray fire of 2016. It explores the geography and ecology of the region as well as the history of the area. It also pulls out wide to provide a picture of fire on earth. Ft. McMurray is situated in a forested area that depends on forest fires for natural regrowth of the forest. There are abundant "oil sands" nearby. The quantity of fuel reserves is huge. However, extracting the oil from sands is a difficult and energy intensive process. Once the price of oil become high, it becomes economically viable to extract the oil. Since the price of oil is high, this has lead to growth of the area and huge amounts of money in the region. 

The 2016 fire was extremely destructive. It occurred during a period of abnormal heat and dryness. It was likely started by humans (though the root cause has not been fully identified.) The city was a small development in a heavily forested area. Houses were slapped together quickly and built close together. They were loaded with plastics and other modern products and construction materials that burn quickly. All of these factors contributed to rapid growth and spread of the fire.

The writing of the first half of the book was great, and did an excellent job of providing the big picture details, while drilling down to individual experiences. Had the book ended here, it would have been great. However, it then went on and on. There were explorations of "firestorms" in Australia and other storms. Then there was a big discussion on global warming and climate change. These topics were only tangentially related to the main topic and not nearly as coherently written. There were clearly a number of factors involved in the fires. Focussing on climate change misses out on other areas that also need to be addressed to limit the destruction.