Authors: M. L. Buchman
Pure Heat (25 page)
The Tillamook Burn was a series of four forest fires. They arrived at six-year intervals as if they could read a calendar: 1933 (caused by a logging operation), 1939 (another logging operation), 1945 (possibly ignited by a Japanese fire balloon launched into the jet stream to drift to America and start forest fires as a last ditch attack during WWII, which joined a second blaze caused by a discarded cigarette), and 1951 (logging again). Three quarters of a million acres burned, which is about 1,000 square miles (just a little smaller than the state of Rhode Island). Due to overlapping areas of the four burns, the ultimate damage covered 550 square miles (almost twice the size of New York City, including all five boroughs, sixteen times Manhattan alone).
A few factors make this fire, or rather series of fires, unique.
In 1933 the Tillamook was the largest standing continuous grove of old-growth forest left in the country. Disastrous burns, some over a million acres such as the Silverton Fire in 1865, had scorched across the Oregon landscape. However, by pure chance, the steep hills and valleys of the Tillamook Burn had remained untouched by fire for almost five hundred years.
The first fire started on August 14, 1933. It was nearly contained in ten days at 40,000 acres. Then a dry, gale-force wind slammed into the 250-foot-tall old-growth forest and the fire spread at three acres a second, burning twenty-one square miles an hour along a fifteen-mile front. To this day, it remains one of the fastest-moving forest fires in U.S. history.
Ultimately 311,000 acres were burned in that first fire, most of that in just twenty hours before the winds died and a fogbank rolled in. Early arrival of September rains finished off the fire on September 5. It had been fought to a standstill by the efforts of more than 3,000 people during nineteen days, surprisingly with only one fatality. The loss from just this first fire of the four has been estimated at 700 million dollars in 2012 currency.
After being turned down for funds by the U.S. Forest Service and other federal agencies due to the project being too big or even impossible, the state and citizens of Oregon took on the reforestation of the Burn in 1948. It was a twenty-five-year effort, but the Tillamook Burn, officially designated the Tillamook State Forest on August 14, 1973 (the fortieth anniversary of the first fire), once again stands tall and filled with wildlife.
And the men and women of the U.S. Forest Service and their contracted firefighters stand ready to protect the trees the next time the fire comes.
For it will come.
Take Over at Midnight
The Night Stalkers
by M.L. Buchman
NAME
: Lola LaRue
RANK
: Chief Warrant Officer 3
MISSION
: Copilot deadly choppers on the world's most dangerous missions
NAME
: Tim Maloney
RANK
: Sergeant
MISSION
: Man the guns and charm the ladies
The past doesn't matter, when their future is doomed
Nothing sticks to “Crazy” Tim Maloney, until he falls hard for a tall Creole beauty with a haunted past and a penchant for reckless flying. Lola LaRue never thought she'd be susceptible to a man's desire, but even with Tim igniting her deepest passions, it may be too late nowâ¦With the nation under an imminent threat of biological warfare, Tim and Lola are the only ones who can stop the madnessâand to do that, they're going to have to trust each other way beyond their limitsâ¦
“Quite simply a great read. Once again Buchman takes the military romance to a new standard of excellence.”â
Booklist
“Buchman continues to serve up nonstop action that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.”
â
Library Journal Xpress
For more M.L. Buchman, visit:
Wait Until Dark
The Night Stalkers
by M.L. Buchman
NAME
: Big John Wallace
RANK
: Staff Sergeant, chief mechanic and gunner
MISSION
: To serve and protect his crew and country
NAME
: Connie Davis
RANK
: Sergeant, flight engineer, mechanical wizard
MISSION
: To be the best⦠and survive
Two crack mechanics, one impossible mission
Being in the Night Stalkers is Connie Davis's way of facing her demons head-on, but mountain-strong Big John Wallace is a threat on all fronts. Their passion is explosive but their conflicts are insurmountable. When duty calls them to a mission no one else could survive, they'll fly into the night togetherâready or not.
Praise for M.L. Buchman:
“Filled with action, adventure, and danger⦠Buchman's novels will appeal to readers who like romances as well as fans of military fiction.” â
Booklist
Starred Review of
I Own the Dawn
For more M.L. Buchman, visit:
I Own the Dawn
The Night Stalkers
by M.L. Buchman
NAME:
Archibald Jeffrey Stevenson III
RANK:
First Lieutenant, DAP Hawk copilot
MISSION:
Strategy and execution of special ops maneuvers
NAME:
Kee Smith
RANK:
Sergeant, Night Stalker gunner and sharpshooter
MISSION:
Whatever it takes to get the job done
You wouldn't think it could get worse, until it doesâ¦
When a special mission slowly unravels, it is up to Kee and Archie to get their team out of an impossible situation with international implications. With her weaponry knowledge and his strategic thinking, plus the explosive attraction that puts them into exact synchrony, together they might just have a fighting chanceâ¦
“The first novel in Buchman's new military suspense series is an action-packed adventure. With a super-stud hero, a strong heroine, and a backdrop of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and the world of the Washington elite, it will grab readers from the first page.” â
RT Book Reviews
, 4 Stars
For more Night Stalkers, visit:
M. L. Buchman's romances have been named in
Booklist
Top 10 of the Year and NPR's Top 5 of the Year. He also has published science fiction and fantasy under the name Matthew Lieber Buchman. He is happiest, no matter how clichéd it may seem, when walking on the beach holding hands with the mother of his awesome kid⦠or when he's writing. In among his career as a corporate project manager, he has rebuilt and single-handed a fifty-foot sailboat, both flown and jumped out of airplanes, designed and built two houses, and bicycled solo around the world. He is now making his living full-time as a writer, living on the Oregon coast. You can keep up with his writing at
www.mlbuchman.com
.
