| Title | : | Under a Flaming Sky: The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894 |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 006123625X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780061236259 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 304 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2006 |
Under a Flaming Sky: The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894 Reviews
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This book tells the tale of a devastating conflagration that wiped out the town of Hinckley in the year 1894. The relevance to today as much of our country goes up in smoke cannot be overstated.
Daniel James Brown - image from Washington University Libraries
There is much information here that was news to me, details about prairie fires. Much of the book is taken up with a novelistic recreation of the actions of a host of real people, some of whom survived the event, most of whom did not. I found that I was not all that engaged with the personal struggles, but was far more interested in the scientific details. Obviously there is considerable overlap as the science describes how human beings are forcefully discorporated by a horrendous natural force.
========================A LOT OF QUOTES
P 64 - [referring to Fire in America by Steven Pyne] In Pyne’s terminology, a mass fire that remains stationary is a firestorm; one that moves is a conflagration. Regardless of this finer distinction, though, all mass fires have certain characteristics that set them apart from ordinary wildfires. They are typically born when two or more smaller fires—often a main fire and the spot fires that it has spawned around its periphery—suddenly merge into a single eruption of flame. The flaming fronts may tower as high as one hundred feet over the tops of the trees, or two hundred feet above the ground. They may advance as fast at 15 miles per hour on level ground—much faster on a slope—and release energy at rates as high at 30,000BTU’s per foot of fire line per second. They create huge convection columns that loom over the surrounding countryside, radiating heat downward and thus drying out the fuel in their paths.
At one point, toward the peak of the Sundance Fire’s intensity, observers saw the side of an entire mountain, the west slope of Apache ridge, erupt into flames in a single instant. The angle of the ridge had exposed the mountainside to an enormous amount of radiant heat from the convection column, quickly drying out the forest and raising its temperature the kindling point. The first ember that landed on the mountainside had then ignited the whole thing as if it were soaked in gasoline.
p 65- Mass fires also generate enormous winds, often of hurricane velocity. Sometimes these winds begin to rotate and become cyclonic, creating fire vortices—tornadoes of fire that may advance well ahead of the main flaming front. Because of the tremendous draft in their convection columns, mass fires typically pick up thousands of flaming of glowing firebrands—some as large as burning logs. They may carry these as much as 18,000 feet into the air before throwing them miles ahead of their fronts, spawning spot fires wherever the firebrands land in fuel. And because mass fires consume their fuel so rapidly, they often exhaust all the available oxygen in the air before they have finished burning off all the carbon and volatile gases that they have released from their fuels. As a result they produce vast clouds of black smoke, black because it’s carrying a heavy load of unburned carbon. As this superheated carbon rises, it eventually encounters enough oxygen to allow combustion to resume, and flames arc in sheets across the sky. To people on the ground it appears that the sky itself is on fire. Most spectacularly of all, glowing bubbles of the gases released by fire—bubbles that may be as big as a car or even a house—may float some distance ahead of the fire like gigantic balloons dancing in the sky before igniting suddenly over the heads of onlookers.
p79 - [regarding a group of people in a clearing]
…there was fire on all sides of them now, and the heat was withering, searing their faces amd forcing their eyes shut. With every minute that passed, the heat was becoming more unbearable. Instinctively, people got down on their hands and knees and pressed their mouths close to the ground, sucking in cooler air. People prayed and cried and wailed. They gagged and wretched on the smoke. Some simply sat in the grass, staring at the approaching flames as is they could see something through them.
Soon the flames dropped down from the trees and dances along the edges of the clearing all around them, rippling through the grass that had looked so cool and green. They made a sharp crackling sound in the grass. Billows of sweet-smelling white smoke drifted up toward the black sky. Moaning, people rose and pulled away from the advancing flames, crowding each other, jostling each other as they pulled back, packing themselves into the very center of the clearing.
But within moments, there was no more room to pull back and the flames were upon them, lapping at their feet, blistering their ankles and shins, racing up their clothing, slapping at their faces. One by one, the women’s long dresses erupted—large tangerine-orange blossoms of fire wavering in the smoky gloom. Everyone screamed, but the screams came out thin and unnaturally high-pitched. The withering heat had dessicated their vocal cords, pulling them taught like overstretched rubber bands. Grown men suddenly sounded like young girls. When the screams were over they had to breathe in, and when they did they inhaled flames and superheated air, sucking the flames into their very mouths. Then, clawing at the air, black silhouettes dancing among the orange flames, they began to die.
p 83 - Fire kills in several ways, depending on the circumstances. Some are much worse than others. The luckiest of fire’s victims die in their sleep, something that is surprisingly easy to do. All fires consume large amounts of oxygen and emit large amounts of carbon monoxide. They may emit a number of other gases as well, depending on the fuel that feeds them, and many of these gases, like carbon dioxide and cyanide, can also kill. But carbon monoxide kills the overwhelming majority of fire victims. Because it is tasteless and odorless, sleeping victims often never awaken to see, hear or smell the fire that kills them. The brain will scream out for more oxygen if carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs, but carbon monoxide is subtler. A stealth killer it sets off no alarms. It silently fills the lungs then—bonding to the hemoglobin in the blood 250 times more readily than oxygen to form a compound called carboxyhemoglobin (COHb)—it rapidly displaces the oxygen in the bloodstream. The brain and other vital organs are caught unawares. Suddenly deprived of oxygen, and having no other choice, vital organs such as the brain simply shut down, rather promptly. By the time the saturation of CODb in the bloodstream reaches 90 percent, death comes in minutes
Unfortunately, death by fire is not always so easy. Fully conscious victims, if they are surrounded by both flames and adequate oxygen, may remain alert until the flames have reached them and begun to consume their flesh. Oxygen ordinarily represents 21 percent of the air we breath, but we can generally maintain consciousness until the level falls to about 9 percent. Even if the flames themselves do not make it to conscious victims, it sometimes happens that those victims are forced to breathe superheated air—air that still contains some oxygen but is so hot that it burns away the soft tissues in their mouths, throats and vocal chords. These people know, for at least a few moments, what it is like to be burned alive, both from without and from within. If victims do not lose consciousness and there fore stay in one place anc continue to breathe the hot gases for a prolonged period of time, the damage from these hot gases may extend into their lower respiratory systems. Then even their alveoli, the 300 million or so tiny air sacks that line the lungs and transfer oxygen to the bloodstream, may be burned away, a fate that many people in the dry marsh north of the Grindstone probably suffered. But the fire has even worse to offer.
Fire always emits heat in the form of radiation. Radiant heat travels away from its source at the speed of light, so, for all practical purposes, it is felt instantaneously by anyone in the vicinity of a fire. This is the hat you feel on your face sitting in front of a fireplace on a cold winter’s evening. If you raise a hand, or any other shield, between your face and the fire, the heat on your face disappears immediately. The radiation emitted by a fire falls away fairly quickly with distance., so if you move your chair across the room it is likely that you won’t feel any noticeable heat on your face, though the air in the room may well be heated by convection from the fire. If the fire is big enough—say, a bonfire on a beach—you may have to stand quite a distance from it in order to be comfortable. But if it’s as big as a forest fire, you may not be able to get far enough away from it fast enough to avoid being broiled alive. This is the unkindest way fire kills, by the sheer application of heat. It is only likely to happen when the victim has enough oxygen to breathe for a sustained period of time—thus remaining fully conscious—but is still near enough to an overwhelming source of heat to be killed by it. Fortunately, since large fires consume enormous amounts of oxygen, this is relatively rare.
July 5, 2012 - Timothy Egan's column addresses what can only be called
The Burning Time as the summer of 2012 puts the lie to deniers of global warming, as do the conflagrations in 2020 -
If I ever have kids - and ain't that a notion! - I will never let them play video games or watch violent movies or do any of the other things I was so happy to do as a child. That's because I am acutely aware of how a young mind can be indelibly molded by the experiences of childhood. My current (and undiminished) obsessions with the Titanic, Custer's Last Stand, and the Alamo, all flow from my early introduction to these harrowing stories of men and women in the last moments of their life, enacting immortal drams under lethal duress.
Case in point: the Great Hinckley Fire of September 1, 1894.
I first learned about the fire while on a family vacation to Duluth, Minnesota. We stopped in Hinckley to get locally famous cinnamon rolls (which is a crock, because all cinnamon rolls taste the same: pretty good) and saw a sign for the Hinckley Fire Museum. Since this was during my firefighter stage (all boys go through it), we all went.
Oh, such fascinating horrors! There was an old-time fire wagon with hand pump and hose. There were sundry items of daily life, charred almost beyond recognition. There was a papier-mâché diorama. Heck, there was even an animatronic telegraph operator tapping out haunting messages from a town in the path of a firestorm. I learned grim and unforgettable things, of a tornado of fire, and trains racing over burning trestles, and people sheltering in a mill pond even as sawdust floating on the surface exploded into flames.
During college, I plotted out a book on the Hinckley Fire. Why? Because, at the time, there was no great book on the subject. I gathered materials, did my research, and outlined the structure. I even called the helpful librarian at the Fire Museum to get ideas. Then I figured it'd be easier to write a novel, since a novel doesn't require endnotes. Another idea hit me. Why don't I add a serial killer? And what if the "serial killer" was actually a terrifying bear-creature? I thought this was a good idea, because I always liked the idea of writing a crime procedural, but I'm horrible coming up with satisfying conclusions to mysteries (in much the same way as the writers of Lost, I'm afraid). With the fire, my ending wrote itself. Everything burns. Deus ex genius.
(In other words, I meant to combine the Howie Long classic Firestorm with the William Girdler epic Grizzly and John McNaughton's incisive Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer).
I actually wrote three chapters one night. Then I went to the bar, drank myself to a free t-shirt, and never wrote another word. I think about that sometimes, as I pay my student loans.
The point of that digression is that I didn't want to like this book. I wanted the seminal Hinckley Fire work to remain in my hands. Well, it's not. This book is the place to go for everything you need or want to know about Hinckley.
Author Daniel James Brown combines Walter Lord-style personal narratives with fascinating and informative digressions on the forerunner of the National Weather Service, trains, fire science, and the nature of burns. The thing that most impressed me was his ability to transition between the two styles. It makes for a book that is propulsively readable; once you start, you're going to want to finish in one sitting (so maybe don't take it to your wife's house on Easter, okay?).
The book provides facts for your mind, and blood and guts for your 10 year-old boy-mind. Here's what I mean. On one page, you get a little applied science:Mass fires...generate enormous winds, often of hurricane velocity. Sometimes these winds begin to rotate and become cyclonic, creating fire vortices - tornadoes of fire that may advance well ahead of the main flaming front. Because of the tremendous updraft in their convection columns, mass fires typically pick up thousands of flaming or glowing firebrands...They may carry these as much as 18,000 feet into the air before throwing them miles ahead of their fronts, spawning spot fires wherever the firebrands land in fuel. And because mass fires consume their fuel so rapidly, they often exhaust all the available oxygen in the air before they have finished burning all the carbon and volatile gases that they have released from their fuels. As a result, they produce vast clouds of black smoke, black because it's carrying a heavy load of unburned carbon.
Then, on another page, it's the human dimension. For instance, you might learn about 127 men, women, and children who tried to take shelter in a grassy clearing that - but for a severe drought - would've been a swamp.[W:]ithin moments, there was no more room to pull back and the flames were upon them, lapping at their feet, blistering their ankles and shins, racing up their clothing, slapping at their faces. One by one, the women's long dresses erupted - large, tangerine-orange blossoms of fire wavering in the smokey gloom. Everyone screamed, but the screams came out thin and unnaturally high-pitched. The withering heat had desiccated their vocal cords, pulling them taut like overstretched rubber bands. Grown men suddenly sounded like young girls. When the screams were over, they had to breathe in, and when they did they inhaled flames and superheated air, sucking the flames into their very mouths.
The destruction of Hinckley, and several other towns in the area, dwarfed the Great Chicago Fire (there were 418 reported deaths, though the number may be twice as high). In terms of pure drama, I don't think Hinckley has an equal. Brown has done an incredible job of marshaling the individual stories and presenting them in a vivid manner, while also giving the context of the disaster. Brown shows how a simple confluence of weather (a drought), clear-cutting of timber (which left a great deal of slash along the railways) and railroads (embers from an engine likely sparked the blaze) precipitated disaster. He analyzes these occurrences, and also, without drawing harsh conclusions, the actions of some of the major players, especially the train engineers (specifically Bill Best and Jim Root) who were accused of driving into the fire in order to maintain their timetables.
If there's a criticism, it's that the chapters after the fire, dealing with Hinckley's rebirth (as a place to get cinnamon rolls on the way to Duluth) are anticlimactic. Really, though, I can't really find fault with this, the last word on the subject of the Great Hinckley Fire.
The only thing it's missing is a serial killing monster from the depths of the forest, loosely-based on Chippewa legends, and perhaps with an environmental motive to its seemingly random slaughter.
That book is yet to be written (please don't steal it from me!) -
I have absolutely no complaints with this book, but it is an emotionally difficult read. I stopped and asked myself occasionally why I put myself through this. My response? To keep myself informed. However reading this, can scarcely be called enjoyable.
I want to emphasize that the author does not exaggerate or overdramatize events. He is simply recording the facts. His grandfather lived through the firestorm and had terrible nightmares years and years later. With the writing of this book, what happened will not be forgotten.
Weather phenomena, forestry routines practiced in the area, similar incendiary catastrophes are clearly documented in an intelligible manner. We observe step by step exactly what happened. The information provided about the people living through the firestorm makes one’s heart go out to them. The flow of information from one topic to another makes the reading manageable. One can absorb only so much of the horrific until one must have a break. The author take this into consideration.
We learn what happens to all those we meet during the storm. In the epilogue, we learn how those who survived came to view what they lived through and how it had changed them. They certainly did not all behave in the same way, nor were they affected similarly.
We observe heroic behavior and deplorable behavior. The author balances the two well.
Mark Bramhall reads the audiobook. He does a fantastic job. His voice is clear, and his tone is calm. I couldn’t have gotten through this as an audiobook had a narrator who dramatizes been chosen. Bramhall’s narration I have given five stars.
A very good book, but an extremely difficult read. I tend to empathize too much. Books like this upset me. They wear me down, yet I don’t regret reading it.
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The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics 4 stars
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Under a Flaming Sky: The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894 4 stars
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Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II TBR
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The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride -
On September 1, 1894, a combination of dried tree branches, scorching temperatures, a Canadian high front and a complacent citizenry combined to create the perfect forest fire that leveled Hinckley, Minnesota, a small lumbering town halfway between St. Paul and Duluth. The town lost nearly half its population, some of whom suffocated, many of whom burned to death. This tragic story and its aftermath is told readably and well in UNDER A FLAMING SKY (2006).
Author Daniel James Brown, who would go on to win accolades in 2013 with
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics has done very well with this one, his starter book. It was amazing to me how much history, personality and local color he managed to convey while covering an event now over 125 years old. The smoke and the stench and the shrieks of the suffering come across with unusual clarity here. I am also reminded just how, even after a century's worth of forestry management, forest fires still have the power to strike without warning, terrifying all in their path and forcing them to evacuate. (Just this morning, I learned that the Oregon in-laws of a friend had had to clear out so quickly, they left chickens and barn cats behind.)
This book rates a good clean recommendation. Some illustrations would have helped.
from the book:
Anderson's clothes were smoldering and he didn't hesitate. He staggered into the cold water and sat down, holding the baby's head and his own just above the surface. The cold water gripped his privates, his belly, and his chest like a vise, pressing the breath out of him and making him gasp. But it numbed the pain of the burns on his back. The baby was red-faced, bawling, its small face screwed up with fear and rage and shock. (p. 115) -
All of my life I've heard about The Great Hinckley Fire and have seen multiple pictures of the monument but I never knew much about what happened other than my great-great grandparents were able to escape with my great grandfather and his siblings. I've always wanted to know more but never really knew where to look since I'm in Ohio and have never been to Minnesota. In High School we had to write a play or novel based on a historic event and I wrote mine based on the fire and actually almost failed because my history teacher thought I made it up or that it was the Chicago fire that I meant to write about but placed it elsewhere. So, when I came across this book in a Listopia on Goodreads I ordered it immediately! Imagine my surprise when I found out not only was my family in the book (the Curries) but my Aunt was mentioned in it as well as she helped with some research!
I had pretty high hopes when that book landed at my door and was worried that it wouldn't live up to the kind of book I'd hoped it be. I had recently read The Children's Blizzard and while it was interesting, it wasn't quite as engaging as I had hoped it would be. My worries were for naught though as Under a Flaming Sky was not only informative but very engaging. While there is a bit of technical talk, it's all laid out so that anyone could understand it and it actually helps you place yourself in Hinckley and the surrounding areas during the fire. From the moment I picked up the book it was very hard to put it down - even the ending where he lists all of his sources was interesting to read! While the book doesn't quite go deep into depth with the survivors stories as I would have liked, this is definitely one of my favorite disaster/history books I've read and that is without the fact that if my family didn't survive the fire storm I wouldn't be here ;)
Definitely a highly recommended read to anyone that likes survival or disaster type stories about events in history! -
“On September 1, 1894, two forest fires converged on the town of Hinckley, MN, trapping more than 2000 people. The fire created its own weather, including hurricane-strength winds, bubbles of plasma-like glowing gas, and 200-foot tall flames. As temperatures reached 1,600 degrees F, the firestorm knocked down buildings and carried flaming debris high into the sky. Two trains—one with every single car on fire—became the only means of escape. In all, more than 400 people would die, leading to a revolution in forestry management and the birth of federal agencies that monitor and fight wildfires.”
This book tells the true story of the 1894 Great Hinckley Firestorm, which burned 350,000 acres in 5 hours and killed over 400 people. It is the story of a logging town in Minnesota. Many of those logs provided additional fuel to the fire. The narrative provides a vivid sense of this disaster. It also presents the context and aftermath.
It is well-structured. The author builds suspense as the fire approaches the town. He portrays the panic people feel when they find themselves trapped. Brown has woven these stories together through researching diaries, letters, and news articles. It is filled with individual stories and acts of heroism.
“As she stepped outside an enormous blast of hot air slammed into the house, bowling mother and child over, tumbling them 25 or 30 feet into a nearby cornfield. Anderson ran to them and knelt beside the dazed mother, imploring her to let him take the baby. He’d save its life if he could save his own…She resisted at first, but then looked where Anderson was pointing at the wall of flame advancing toward them and thrust the baby into Anderson’s arms.”
Brown’s grandfather was a child when this fire hit town, so he had a personal interest in documenting this disaster. His grandfather survived but lost family members. It is scary, heart-wrenching, and sad, but also an excellent example of bringing a lesser-known piece of history to light. -
What.a.book.
I just realized the other night that I’ve been back in my home state of Nebraska for a full year after a warm five year respite in the South. That means, since its now November, this is going to be my first full winter back. It started slow last year, which suited me fine, but it culminated in one 8 inch snow, and then a final 2 inch snow in the beginning of May. Now, for the first time in years, I’m going to sit through the whole thing. Already the temperatures swing back and forth, 30 one day, and 70 the next. You never know where you are going to land. The Midwest is a harsh place most of the year, and I can only imagine in days before actual houses and weather forecasting that it was terrifying. Even in the warmth and insulated safety of my house, the wind howls like mad outside, and there are times in the winter when I can understand why pioneers just walked out into the snow because they couldn’t take “the damn wailing of the wind” any longer. So as a sort of dark “welcome back” I officially nominate the 2013 Winter Reading Season as Natural Disaster and Survival themed reading. I would say that reading about the Hinckley forest fire kicked things off, but really, it’s gripping, white-knuckled narrative and wealth of information are what has inspired the season, rather than the other way around.
When I told my husband I was doing a themed Disaster reading he thought I’d lost my mind. He reminded me that I had to repeatedly put the book down, saying “Wow, that just got really hard to read” as the town slowly burned to death. Why would I want to continue? Because I learned so much. I had no idea. I knew nothing about ground fires and conflagration, or how fast these things could move, or how the convective air currents will hit the upper atmosphere, tip down, and start a new fire several miles away by blasting new trees with air in excess of 2,000 degrees. It makes you appreciate what forest fires do today, what people in other countries still have to deal with, the dangers of our current method of fire control in national parks. I was literally bubbling with information about forest fires, willing (unfortunately to those within earshot) to evangelize this new and fascinating knowledge to anyone. How could they not be just as curious? Its fire! It’s terrifying. It’s beautiful. It’s necessary and destructive.
And you read these kinds of stories and are very often filled with wonder and hope. The men stayed behind, ensuring that women and children got on the trains first; the conductors, trains on fire, one bleeding from the neck, held on to scorching hot metal to drive that train as fast and as far as they could from the fire. They were heroes. They risked themselves, their jobs, their futures, as they stood their ground in front of a literal mountain of flame. I honestly can’t say I’d do the same. Maybe I would. Maybe I wouldn’t. You cannot know until you’re faced with something like that, but you can be in awe. They stood their ground against the caveman and the biology and evolution for self-preservation, and won. And saved hundreds. Even when things were tragic, and they found parents curled around their children, it’s beautiful in the love and the sacrifice that they made. They tried to do everything to save their children, trying to take the pain from them. Reading about tragedies gives you a beautiful wonderful glimmer of what mankind can be like at its absolute best. Nothing can compare.
The narrative was told from the point of view of several people, each had different experiences during the fire, which provides a comprehensive look at the disaster. I have to admit that at times I became far too terrified for these “characters” that I logged onto the Hinckley Fire Museum webpage and read Dr. Stephan’s death list, to try and see who would come out alive. I was that stressed reading about the fire. After finishing the book I took out my New York Times Cover pages book, and though this page wasn’t in the book, I did find it on the cd’s that came with the book. I read through the New York Times article, comparing it to the book, to what I know now. It was a singular experience.
Now I’m moving on to those books which the author said inspired him and provided an outline for how a disaster book should be written . First up, the Perfect Storm.
To read my review of my Natural Disaster Themed read which included 10 different disaster books click link:
Here! -
I loved this book! My Dad recommended it to me along with my Sister. Unbelievable. It was a book I thought about and keep thinking about. Sad when it was over.
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Grim and hard to read, but very well done. It's impossible as just a reader to fathom either the human suffering or the destructive force from a massive fire, but Under a Flaming Sky pulls no punches and does what it can to convey the scale of the horror.
The author (grandchild of a survivor) did a nice job of drawing at least some of the citizens and railroad workers as whole people with actual lives—not an easy task, but his extensive research pays off. It helps to approach the book with a little historical knowledge in place. Familiarity with the yellow journalism, robber barons, and racial animus of the late 19th century goes a long way to color in some of the context Brown hints at. -
I could almost categorize this under "horror," for all the people went through. I had never heard of this fire before reading this, although considering the number of deadly fires Brown describes later in the book, I suppose that's hardly surprising. Indeed, the thing that most impressed me from this book is the sheer number of decades that passed after this horrific event before restrictions were finally put in place on logging companies to try to avoid like catastrophes. Hundreds and hundreds of lives were lost over several decades from terrible fires because of man's tendency to destroy himself.... and to put the almighty dollar above the value of human (and other) life.
With several wildfires that have destroyed several hundred homes in my own part of the country in the last few years, it was especially interesting to read about how these massive fires are formed, and the immense advantages we have today of advance warning systems, even as simple as radio and television, not to mention social media. Relatively few lives were lost in the recent fires in my area, even if many homes were lost, because people were warned to evacuate long before the flames got near them. I do remember that one couple was caught in their own garage and burned while getting into their car, and I remember wondering how that was possible, when you can see the fire coming? This book put that more into perspective for me, both in the descriptions of how mechanically we can often act in times of crisis, and in the description of just how quickly this kind of inferno can spread, leaping ahead, causing explosions of ignition, sucking all of the oxygen out of the air.
As was my experience reading Brown's book on the doomed Donner Party, some of the descriptions were a little more detailed than I cared for (there's nothing quite like listening to accounts of the finding of charred bodies while trying to prepare family dinner), but the descriptions of how fire works, and yes, even kills, were still fascinating. I'd say that it should be required reading as a warning of better environmental awareness and care of our planet, if nothing else, if I thought it would make a difference... but since even the people of that time didn't listen to the warnings, it doesn't seem any more likely to deter people from destructive behaviors now than 100 (or 10,000) years ago. -
This book started off great with a lot of energy but, it could not keep that intensity going. I think what really made this book suffer the most was the lack of a real protagonist. Initially the chaos of jumping from one person to another to another helped add to the rushed and panicked feel of the story. As this continued to go I felt it hurt the story telling because I was not able to connect to any character.
I really liked his other two books (Boys in the Boat and Donner Party Bride) so I was excited to read this one and was sadly let down. -
Under a Flaming Sky is a sad yet true story of a fire in Minnesota many years ago. It was recommended to me by a very close friend. I'm glad that he was able to share this sad, yet incredible story with me.
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In late summer of 1894, towering flames stretching many miles wide ripped through a string of small communities in northern Minnesota, obliterating the towns and killing hundreds of people. In the town of Hinckley, people escaped on two trains, one of which was already in flames by the time it pulled out of the station in a desperate attempt to reach a lake 5 miles away.
Author Daniel Brown grew up with this story since his grandfather survived the fire as a child. If you liked The Children’s Blizzard you'll probably like this, too. Brown uses the same storytelling technique, weaving together the stories of individuals across the same timeline and adding lots of information about fires in general, the railroads, and logging. I sometimes lost track of what was happening to different people (it’s Minnesota so lots of Scandinavian names), and will probably read this again in a more leisurely way. I absolutely devoured it on this first read! Highly recommended for anyone who loves a good disaster. (Fans of Betsy-Tacy will appreciate the frequent mentions of James J Hill.) -
Amazing. I didn’t fully comprehend this horrific fire until reading this well researched account. I should have known from the writing skills that this is the Boys in the Boat author.
Daniel James Brown expertly conveys the not only the human experience, but the science of fire, the logging industry that made this conflagration possible, the railroads that provided quick escape for some, and the medical realities of the victims.
Staggering -
Not the type of book I normally read but I was fascinated from the beginning. As someone who has always been very nervous about natural disasters, this book caught my attention and I am amazed that I have never heard of these events before. I give 5 stars to only a very select few books. I judge it on how much I keep thinking about the book afterwards and how much I continue to talk about the book with others.
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***Mature readers with strong stomachs only***
I picked up this book because I had read another book by this author (wrote Boys in the Boat) & loved his writing. And because even moreso it’s about the little town of Hinckley, Minnesota - not too far from where we lived. You will either drop this book quickly because it is so disturbing to you - or - not be able to put it down right from the beginning. It’s like a sci-fi thriller (a genre I never read so I’m surmising) that you won’t believe happened to real people. The power of fire & the courage of people in the face of it will amaze you. The story is horribly tragic & moving while weaving in the history of Minnesota, how mass fire behaves 😲😲😲, American fire management, studies on crisis behavior, & burn & post traumatic stress treatment as well as many other interesting things. And by the way - the author’s great-grandfather died in the fire.
Now that I’ve read this book, when heaven comes I will be watching for the reunions of family members who lost each other on that day in September 1894 when their world turned into an inferno with little warning. -
The greatest (wait, no...the happiest) surprise of my year might be that I've become a fan of a non-fiction writer named Daniel James Brown. In general, non-fiction is not my bag; I'm a fiction fan, the more fantastic the better. However, I love Jon Krakauer, and now I have another author to obsess over: DJB. Under a Flaming Sky came out before The Indifferent Stars Above (a masterpiece), and it's obvious he has grown as a writer since then, but it's still a hella good book that captures the sudden horror and power of the Hinckley fire. His images will stay burned (cough) into my memory forever, but his section about the inner narrative or script, and how it cost so many lives, will remain with me always. A loving ode to the people who were lost, a tribute to the brave people who survived and a warning as climate change grows ever more real, this is a must read for fans of non-fiction and fiction alive. It sears.
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A stark documentation of a horrific tragedy, this book had me wondering why we are so slow to learn how the devastation of wildfire can be mitigated and minimized. Fire science wasn’t even a “thing” in 1894 and there have been some takeaways in understanding how these wildfires start, the voracious appetite for fuel that they relentlessly seek and the fantasy we call “control” past a point of their growth. And yet wildfires continue to destroy public lands, private properties and many lives each year.
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Devastating fires killed more than 400 people and destroyed over 350,000 acres of land in 5 hours in 1894. Through a historical overview and personal stories, author does a good job of portraying the devastation in the loss of human life and in property damage. I look at this as a cautionary tale as to what can happen when rules and regulations devised to preserve the environment and promote safety are not in place. And the country at this point seems to be moving backwards on these points with the proposed gutting of the EPA.
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I read this book solely because this was the same author who wrote the phenomenal Boys in the Boat. Highest praise is probably to say I was not disappointed. This is a gripping tale, well told, radiating earnest love and respect for the people who died and suffered and filled with stories of the kind of heroes who rise up when a horror like this strikes. Mind you, it is a grim and grisly read and made me initially question the nutritional value of reading, somewhat voyeuristically, about a horrible event. However, I ultimately think it's worth it. It was a healthy reminder that we are all always in the hands of God, and he does whatever he pleases.
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This is really a 4.5 book for me. Extreme Story, well written. It has changed the way I understand humanity and challenges. Grateful the author remembered and honored his grandfather and great-grandfather. Highly recommend this book but, don't read it if you are in the mood for a fluff book. This book does open up your heart and makes you think.
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This was a nail-biter, edge-of-the-seat read. Especially while there's smoke outside from wildfires! Then, it was hand-over-mouth...and then tears... SO tragic. But I felt compelled to read and to finish reading it, even through the tough parts. My heart hurt reading about those families so long ago...and for the families today, going through this. Wildfires and firestorms are still happening. I live in the woods and have had been on evacuation notice a couple of times. Thank goodness, fire science and technology has vastly improved fighting these fires and saving lives.
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It took me a very long time to finish this, because it was so horrific (and by horrific, I mean the content, not the writing), it made me physically anxious. I loved it though. It was incredibly comprehensive, following a small group of people and how they fared during the fire, as well as after.
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What an engrossing book. Makes the fraility of life very obvious. The stories of what happened to the poor people in the towns is heart wrenching.
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The idea of this book appeared more exciting than the reality. Well written with colorful descriptive language. However the book was down right gruesome and dark. Not for the faint heart. I greatly appreciate the research the author shares because it helped me stay interested. Each point was well argued with sound logic. The book was dense and well thought out.
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Devastating!
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