British Columbia in Flames : Stories from a Blazing Summer

British Columbia in Flames: Stories from a Blazing Summer

Claudia Cornwall
$26.95


Like many British Columbians in 2017, Claudia Cornwall found herself glued to the news about the disastrous wildfires across the province. Her worry was personal: her cabin at Sheridan Lake had been in the family for sixty years and was now in danger of destruction.

Cornwall, a long-time writer, was stricken not just by her own experience, but by the many moving stories she came across about the fires—so she began collecting them. She met with people from BC communities of Sheridan Lake, Ashcroft, Cache Creek, 16 Mile House, Lac La Hache, Quesnel, Williams Lake, Hanceville-Riske Creek and Clinton. She hoped to be a conduit for the voices she heard—for those who fought the fires raging around them, those who were evacuated and displaced, and those who could do nothing but watch as their homes burned. She conducted over fifty hours of interviews with ranchers, cottagers, Indigenous residents, RCMP officers, evacuees, store and resort owners, search and rescue volunteers, firefighters and local government officials.

Presented in British Columbia in Flames are stories that illustrate the importance of community. During the 2017 wildfires, people looked after strangers who had no place to go. They shared information. They helped each other rescue and shelter animals. They kept stores open day and night to supply gas, food and comfort to evacuees. This memoir, at once journalistic and deeply personal, highlights the strength with which BC communities can and will come together to face a terrifying force of nature.


Prize(s): Nominated Jean Clarke Awards (2022), Short-listed Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Book Prize (2021), Honourable Mention in the British Columbia Historical Federation’s Lieutenant Governor’s Writing Competition 

“The summer of 2017 burnt itself—literally as well as figuratively—into British Columbia’s collective memory. Journalist Claudia Cornwall records the worst fire season in provincial history, from the vast indifference of climate change imposing its will upon the landscape to the intensely personal tales of fleeing homesteaders saving their livestock. British Columbia in Flames is simply a terrific book, as literary journalism and as a chronicle of fiery apocalypse, both present and yet to come. Buy it. You won’t regret it.”


–Stephen Hume, journalist and author


Harbour Publishing
ISBN: 9781550178944
Paperback / softback
6.0 in x 9.0 in - 304 pp
Publication Date: 19/09/2020
BISAC Subject(s):: NAT023000-NATURE / Natural Disasters,BIO036000-BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Fire & Emergency Services,BIO026000-BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs 
:

Description


Like many British Columbians in 2017, Claudia Cornwall found herself glued to the news about the disastrous wildfires across the province. Her worry was personal: her cabin at Sheridan Lake had been in the family for sixty years and was now in danger of destruction.

Cornwall, a long-time writer, was stricken not just by her own experience, but by the many moving stories she came across about the fires—so she began collecting them. She met with people from BC communities of Sheridan Lake, Ashcroft, Cache Creek, 16 Mile House, Lac La Hache, Quesnel, Williams Lake, Hanceville-Riske Creek and Clinton. She hoped to be a conduit for the voices she heard—for those who fought the fires raging around them, those who were evacuated and displaced, and those who could do nothing but watch as their homes burned. She conducted over fifty hours of interviews with ranchers, cottagers, Indigenous residents, RCMP officers, evacuees, store and resort owners, search and rescue volunteers, firefighters and local government officials.

Presented in British Columbia in Flames are stories that illustrate the importance of community. During the 2017 wildfires, people looked after strangers who had no place to go. They shared information. They helped each other rescue and shelter animals. They kept stores open day and night to supply gas, food and comfort to evacuees. This memoir, at once journalistic and deeply personal, highlights the strength with which BC communities can and will come together to face a terrifying force of nature.


Prize(s): Nominated Jean Clarke Awards (2022), Short-listed Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Book Prize (2021), Honourable Mention in the British Columbia Historical Federation’s Lieutenant Governor’s Writing Competition 

“The summer of 2017 burnt itself—literally as well as figuratively—into British Columbia’s collective memory. Journalist Claudia Cornwall records the worst fire season in provincial history, from the vast indifference of climate change imposing its will upon the landscape to the intensely personal tales of fleeing homesteaders saving their livestock. British Columbia in Flames is simply a terrific book, as literary journalism and as a chronicle of fiery apocalypse, both present and yet to come. Buy it. You won’t regret it.”


–Stephen Hume, journalist and author

Details


Harbour Publishing
ISBN: 9781550178944
Paperback / softback
6.0 in x 9.0 in - 304 pp
Publication Date: 19/09/2020
BISAC Subject(s):: NAT023000-NATURE / Natural Disasters,BIO036000-BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Fire & Emergency Services,BIO026000-BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs 
: