A Freelance Firefighter Spends Half the Year Saving Forests

Freelance firefighter Peter Leschak battles forest fires in the Northwoods and the West...He's not a smoke jumper he says, he’s a grunt-hiking to remote locations, putting out fires sometimes on his hands and knees-spark by spark. His memoir is called Hellroaring. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Freelance firefighter Peter Leschak has battled forest fires in the Northwoods and the West for over 20 years. Hes written several works of nonfiction as well as a memoir, Hellroaring. His new book is Ghost of the Fireground: Echoes of the Great Peshtigo Fire and the Calling of a Wildland Firefighter. (HarperSanFrancisco). Its about the 1871 wildfire in Peshtigo, Wisconsin which was the deadliest fire in North American history. Coincidentally it started the very day and hour as the Great Chicago Fire.

Writer and ecological historian STEPHEN PYNE. His latest book, Fire on the Rim, A Firefighter's Season at the Grand Canyon, explores the intricacies of fire management, man's relation to the rural western environment, and the summer ritual that changes the canyon and the people who try to protect it. Pyne worked as a firefighter for 15 season's on the northern rim of the Grand Canyon. Pyne describes a life where the firefighter lives in isolation for four months, defined by the fires and the capriciousness of lightning.