{"product_id":"the-esperanza-fire-arson-murder-and-the-agony-of-engine-57-9781619022782","title":"The Esperanza Fire: Arson, Murder, and the Agony of Engine 57","description":"When a jury returns to a packed courtroom to announce its verdict in a capital murder case every noise, even a scraped chair or an opening door, resonates like a high-tension cable snap. Spectators stop rustling in their seats; prosecution and defense lawyers and the accused stiffen into attitudes of wariness; and the judge looks on owlishly. In that atmosphere of heightened expectation the jury entered a Riverside County Superior Court room in southern California to render a decision in the trial of Raymond Oyler, charged with murder for setting the Esperanza Fire of 2006, which killed a five-man Forest Service engine crew sent to fight the blaze. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003eToday, wildland fire is everybody's business, from the White House to the fireground. Wildfires have grown bigger, more intense, more destructive--and more expensive. Federal taxpayers, for example, footed most of the $16 million bill for fighting the Esperanza Fire. But the highest cost was the lives of the five-man crew of Engine 57, the first wildland engine crew ever to be wiped out by flames. They were caught in an \"area ignition,\" which in seconds covered three-quarters of a mile and swept the house they were defending on a dry ridge face, where human dwellings chew into previously wild and still unforgiving territory. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJohn Maclean, award-winning author of three previous books on wildfire disasters, spent more than five years researching the Esperanza Fire and covering the trial of Raymond Oyler. Maclean offers an insider's second-by-second account of the fire and the capture and prosecution of Oyler, the first person ever to be found guilty of murder for setting a wildland fire.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn Norman Maclean\u003c\/b\u003e is an award-winning author and journalist who has written about wildland fire for more than 15 years. Before turning to fire, Maclean was for 30 years a journalist with The Chicago Tribune, most of that time as diplomatic correspondent in Washington. His first book, \u003ci\u003eFire on the Mountain\u003c\/i\u003e, was featured in two documentaries by Dateline NBC and the History Channel. He has also written \u003ci\u003eFire and Ashes\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Thirtymile Fire\u003c\/i\u003e, both widely celebrated and critically acclaimed. He and his wife divide their time between Washington, DC and the West.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Counterpoint LLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50516088029458,"sku":"9781619022782","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_9f46f46a-d1fe-4c15-8fd6-ef9cfd8f24db.jpg?v=1731019035","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-esperanza-fire-arson-murder-and-the-agony-of-engine-57-9781619022782","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}