Fire Power

A female hotshot firefighter’s inside look at battling the ever-hotter and more frequent wildfires in America’s West

- KELLY RAMSEY

With wildfires getting more severe and unpredictable, the work of firefighters is increasingly significant—and dangerous. January's Los Angeles County fires caused up to $53.8 billion in property losses and billions more in economic and tax hits to the economy, according to a February report from the Southern California Leadership Council and the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation. Often referred to as the “special forces” of wildland firefighting, hotshot crews tackle the most difficult and remote wildfires.

Most people who come to a hotshot crew have a few fire seasons under their belt; but when Kelly Ramsey joined her hotshot crew, she was the only rookie to both the crew and to fire—and the sole woman, as well as the first in nearly a decade. To many of the men, she was the only woman they'd ever worked with. In this exclusive excerpt from her book, WILDFIRE DAYS: A WOMAN, A HOTSHOT CREW, AND THE BURNING AMERICAN WEST (Scribner), Ramsey talks about fighting the 2020 North Complex Fire in California.

THE DAY AFTER LABOR DAY, WE woke to the wind. It threw dirt on our tarps and whipped hair into my mouth as I zipped my bag. The morning was sunny, which should have been a warning. Sun means the inversion has lifted—a temperature inversion happens when warm air “caps” cooler air, trapping smoke in the valley overnight, dampening fire activity. Once the temperature rises, the fire awakens.

We stood in a circle to brief. “The East Wind Event they've been talking about arrives today,” Van said. He had gone to morning briefing with all the other superintendents, where they'd learned about the weather situation. “As you can see, it's already here.”