Review: The Worst Wildfires of All Time

The Worst Wildfires of All Time by Suzanne Garbe

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This title is from the same Edge imprint of Capstone that made [b:This or That Animal Debate|14352457|This or That Animal Debate A Rip-Roaring Game of Either/Or Questions|Joan Axelrod-Contrada|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1355894635s/14352457.jpg|19994386] and [b:Awesome Space Robots|16251001|Awesome Space Robots|Michael O'Hearn|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1366561344s/16251001.jpg|22292567]. The book series is called Epic Disasters, and there are seven other titles: Avalances, Earthquakes, Floods, Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Tsunamis, and Volcanic Eruptions. A walk through ten historical wildfires from around the world gives basic facts on how destructive each fire was in terms of land burned, people killed, and homes destroyed.

Unfortunately, the entire book depends on a clear understanding of square acres (hectares), or even square miles. This is the kind of measurement and scale issue where you can experience the 'wow' factor just by hearing the word 'millions' used repeatedly. But still, designers can use infographics to help readers relate to these kinds of gigantic numbers. Just knowing, for example, how many cars I could park inside an acre, and then scaling that out to the acres in the wildfire would give a sense of scale--most everyone knows how big a car is and how many cars they see in a parking lot. But most people don't have a visual reference for ten acres, let alone a million.

The text offers ideas on basic management and thinking about wildfires, but not much beyond this. The stock photos provide a topical backdrop, but there is nothing to suggest the images are even from the fire featured on the page (we know the ones from the 19th century aren't). The media researcher, Marcie Spence, got the best stock photos she could for each topic, and these may be corresponding or they may not. Of the images from the AP, one gets a sub-credit to the Alaska Fire Service, so we know that one is right on. There must be far more topical stock photography than I'm aware of to be able to research that specifically.



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