The 21st Century Will Be Shaped by Destructive ‘Fire Weather’
“The petroleum industry is a wholly owned subsidiary of fire,” says author John Vaillant, whose most recent book looks at a record-breaking blaze in Canada.
A wildfire burns south of Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada, on May 7, 2016.
Photographer: Bloomberg/BloombergIt was one of the most destructive fires in Canada’s history, ravaging the town at the center of the country’s oil production for nearly a week. More than 80,000 people were evacuated as the conflagration, which fire chief Darby Allen called “a beast,” encircled Fort McMurray in Alberta.
The 2016 fire — both a natural disaster and a man-made crisis — is the subject of author John Vaillant’s best-selling Fire Weather: A True Story From A Hotter World. A 2024 Pulitzer finalist, the book explores the forces that made the Fort McMurray blaze possible.