On Kelly Ramsey’s first day with a Californian hotshot crew— an elite team of wildland firefighters—she’s not only scared she won’t be able to keep up with the intense physical demands of the job, but worried how her fellow firefighters will take to her. She is the only woman in a crew of 20 men, as well as their first female team member in ten years. And at 38, she’s also among the oldest.
While Ramsey overcomes “the bro show” and her crew’s skepticism, she finds herself on the frontlines of the some of the fiercest wildfires the West has ever seen. Bringing us along with vivid prose, she battles both the megafires and the insidious psychological toll, and ultimately earning her crew’s respect—and even friendship.
In her intimate and action-packed memoir, Ramsey wrestles with the power of fire to both destroy and renew while confronting her own internal struggles and self-destructive patterns. Asking herself: “Which fires do you fight, and which do you let burn you clean?”
Watch Kelley Ramsey talk about her new book in this video below.
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