Oregon Wildland Firefighting: A History

Over the past century, some of the world’s largest wildland fires have occurred in Oregon. Accidentally set by a disgruntled cook on an English ship, the Great Fire of 1845 displaced multiple tribes and boiled wildlife alive in the Columbia River. The Tillamook Burn started up every 6 years from 1933 to 1951 and incited one of the largest reseeding efforts in the world. The Long Draw Fire of 2012, the state’s largest in over 150 years, began as a small spark and raged into an ocean of flames thousands of acres wide. In Oregon Wildland Firefighting (History Press), veteran wildland firefighter Sean Davis shares harrowing firsthand accounts that illustrate what it takes to battle an inferno.