Hotshot

Author: River Selby
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic Inc., 2025
Pages: 304
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: From 2000 to 2010, River Selby was a wildland firefighter whose given name was Anastasia. This is a memoir of that time in their life - of Ana, the struggles she encountered and the constraints of what it means to be female-bodied in a male-dominated industry. An illuminating debut from a fierce new voice, Hotshot is a timely reckoning with both the personal and environmental damages of wildland firefighting.

By the time they were nineteen, Selby had been homeless, addicted to drugs, and sexually assaulted more than once. In a last-ditch effort to find direction, they applied to be a wildland firefighter. Two years later, they joined an elite class of specially trained wildland firefighters known as hotshots. Over the course of five fire seasons, Selby delves into the world of the people - almost entirely men - who risk their lives to fight and sometimes prevent wildfires. Simultaneously hyper visible and invisible, Selby navigated an odd mix of camaraderie and rampant sexism on the job and, when they challenged it, a violent closing of ranks that excluded them from the work they'd come to love.

Drawing on years of firsthand experience on the frontlines of fire and years of research, Selby examines how the collision of fire suppression policy, colonization, and climate change has led to fire fire seasons of unprecedented duration and severity. A work of rare intimacy, Hotshot provides new insight into fire, the people who fight it, and the diversity of ecosystems dependent on this elemental force.

Review: I grew up in a fire service family. My dad was volunteer firefighter and eventually a fire chief, for my entire childhood, as well as a state fire instructor. My first baby pictures were taken of me at the fire station, and there are many. We spent hours helping raise money for the fire department through various fundraisers and I still love the smell of an "engine room" (the part of a fire station where the trucks are parked). My brother is now fire chief of his local department as his full-time, paid career. I work for a company that designs and manufactures many products used in the fire service industry, SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus), thermal imaging cameras, turnout gear, boots etc. You can imagine that Hotshot caught my attention when this book arrived via a "New Release" email.

Overall, I wanted more memoir and less research, but there is food for thought throughout. It was good reading.