Summer is heating up at the Elm Grove Public Library!

As firefighters in Colorado make progress in their struggle to put out the Black Forest Fire, the most destructive forest fire in Colorado’s history, the fire season rages on throughout the country. Fire danger is high in parts of Alaska, California, and other areas. Here in southeast Wisconsin, we’re generally safe from wildfires, but Wisconsin forests have definitely seen their share of destructive fires.

The deadliest wildfire in the nation’s history happened on October 8, 1871, in the small northeast Wisconsin town of Peshtigo. 1,500 to 2,500 people died in the fire, but because it occurred on the same day as the Great Chicago Fire, many people have not heard about it. In an effort to change that, several authors have written books about the fire, and the Elm Grove Public Library has two of them: “Firestorm at Peshtigo: A Town, Its People, and the Deadliest Fire in American History,” by Denise Gess and William Lutz, and “Ghosts of the Fireground: Echoes of the Great Peshtigo Fire and the Calling of a Wildland Firefighter,” by Peter M. Leschak. You can read an interview with the authors on the Minnesota Public Radio website here.

In the 1930s, smokejumpers started parachuting into forests to help combat forest fires. Thanks to their intense training, their job is not as dangerous as it may seem. However, in 1949, 12 smokejumpers (and 13 firefighters) died in the Mann Gulch Fire in Montana. You can read about what happened in Norman MacLean’s award-winning book, “Young Men and Fire: A True Story of the Mann Gulch Fire.” And, for an insider’s story, check out “Jumping Fire: A Smokejumper’s Memoir of Fighting Wildfire,” written by smokejumper Murry A. Taylor.

All of the books mentioned here are available at the Elm Grove Public Library. Stop by today!