Burnt A memoir of fighting fire

Good memoirs can introduce intriguing individuals and provide access to rarefied pursuits. Author Frank manages both in this account of her fiercely independent life and 30-plus years as a firefighter in California. The youngest of six, Frank emancipated herself at 16 from her loving but religion-obsessed parents. Following a path laid by her older brother Mark, Frank attended training camp to become a seasonal firefighter. Finishing first in her class earned her a job, and despite being only five feet two inches tall and barely 17 years old, she started her career, eventually ascending through the ranks of engineer, captain, and battalion chief all the way to California State Chief of Fire Protection. Using three different timelines, Frank weaves together profiles of her parents and siblings, especially Mark and Annie, her sister who has special needs; moment-by-moment descriptions of fighting fires and forging lifelong bonds with colleagues; and her life as a senior administrator and retiree. The action scenes are compelling; there are hard-won victories and excruciating losses, and Frank emerges as a relatable and thoroughly human hero.

A pioneering woman firefighter recounts a life on the line. Frank opens on a climacteric point long into her multidecade career: She was in line for a promotion to California's state chief of fire protection, "a position six ranks above captain, and successor to the director if something took him out of play." The problem was, after attaining the rank of captain, you can't ride in a firetruck, and a firetruck is where she was born to be. The author writes about her beginnings as a rookie longing for a fire in California's backcountry that would allow her to prove herself to those who doubted she belonged; of one surprising ladder maneuver, she writes, "It wasn't martial arts pretty, but I left some mouths open." After battling lightning- and human-caused wildfires, stumbling upon remote marijuana fields and meth labs, and facing just about every challenge fire could throw her way, a gruesome injury forced her to leave active service. She studied for a law degree and entered the corporate world for only as long as it took to heal and then got right back out on the line. "I liked lawyering," she writes, "but it didn't satisfy me the way firefighting did--especially on a day like [9/11]. While former colleagues packed their bags to help at Ground Zero and my brother drove north to protect our state, I sat in my ergonomically correct chair, shoes kicked off under my desk, feeling useless." Throughout the book, Frank is energetic and inspirational, especially to women considering work in the field--though she is always candid about the countless dangers of the job, from being caught up in a firestorm to going down in a tanker plane. Regardless of the potential pitfalls, there will be plenty of work in the future, with climate change ensuring that large swaths of California will burn regularly. The author includes a helpful 12-page glossary at the end. A vigorous and quite timely memoir. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.