Current:Home > reviewsThe story of a devastating wildfire that reads 'like a thriller' wins U.K. book prize -WealthSync Hub
The story of a devastating wildfire that reads 'like a thriller' wins U.K. book prize
Benjamin Ashford View
Date:2025-04-10 21:28:49
LONDON — A book about a fire that ravaged a Canadian city and has been called a portent of climate chaos won Britain's leading nonfiction book prize on Thursday.
John Vaillant's Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World was awarded the 50,000 pound ($62,000) Baillie Gifford Prize at a ceremony in London.
The chairperson of the judging panel, Frederick Studemann, said the book tells "a terrifying story," reading "almost like a thriller" with a "deep science backdrop."
He called Fire Weather, which was also a U.S. National Book Award finalist, "an extraordinary and elegantly rendered account of a terrifying climate disaster that engulfed a community and industry, underscoring our toxic relationship with fossil fuels."
Vaillant, based in British Columbia, recounts how a huge wildfire engulfed the oil city of Fort McMurray in 2016. The blaze, which burned for months, drove 90,000 people from their homes, destroyed 2,400 buildings and disrupted work at Alberta's lucrative polluting oil sands.
Vaillant said the lesson he took from the inferno was that "fire is different now, and we've made it different" through human-driven climate change.
He said the day the fire broke out in early May, it was 33 degrees Celsius (91.4 degrees Fahrenheit) in Fort McMurray, which is about 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) south of the Arctic Circle. Humidity was a bone-dry 11%.
"You have to go to Death Valley in July to get 11% humidity," Vaillant told The Associated Press. "Now transpose those conditions to the boreal forest, which is already flammable. To a petroleum town, which is basically built from petroleum products — from the vinyl siding to the tar shingles to the rubber tires to the gas grills. ... So those houses burned like a refinery."
Vaillant said the fire produced radiant heat of 500 Celsius — "hotter than Venus."
Canada has experienced many devastating fires since 2016. The country endured its worst wildfire season on record this year, with blazes destroying huge swaths of northern forest and blanketing much of Canada and the U.S. in haze.
"That has grave implications for our future," Vaillant said. "Canadians are forest people, and the forest is starting to mean something different now. Summer is starting to mean something different now. That's profound, It's like a sci-fi story — when summer became an enemy."
Founded in 1999, the prize recognizes English-language books from any country in current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts. It has been credited with bringing an eclectic slate of fact-based books to a wider audience.
Vaillant beat five other finalists including best-selling American author David Grann's seafaring yarn The Wager and physician-writer Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Song of the Cell.
Sponsor Baillie Gifford, an investment firm, has faced protests from environmental groups over its investments in fossil fuel businesses. Last year's prize winner, Katherine Rundell, gave her prize money for Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne to a conservation charity.
The judges said neither the sponsor nor criticism of it influenced their deliberations.
Historian Ruth Scurr, who was on the panel, said she did not feel "compromised" as a judge of the prize.
"I have no qualms at all about being an independent judge on a book prize, and I am personally thrilled that the winner is going to draw attention to this subject," she said.
veryGood! (7468)
Related
- Google unveils a quantum chip. Could it help unlock the universe's deepest secrets?
- Jason Momoa's 584-HP electric Rolls-Royce Phantom II is all sorts of awesome
- Score 75% off a Coach Bag, 60% off Good American Jeans, Get a $55 Meat Thermometer for $5, and More Deals
- Volkswagen pickup truck ideas officially shelved for North America
- NFL Week 15 picks straight up and against spread: Bills, Lions put No. 1 seed hopes on line
- Ricki Lake Reveals Body Transformation After 30-Pound Weight Loss
- Are robocalls ruining your day? Steps to block spam calls on your smartphone
- Nate Burleson and his wife explore her ancestral ties to Tulsa Massacre
- Newly elected West Virginia lawmaker arrested and accused of making terroristic threats
- Chris Gauthier, character actor known for 'Once Upon a Time' and 'Watchmen,' dies at 48
Ranking
- What to watch: O Jolie night
- Volkswagen pickup truck ideas officially shelved for North America
- Volkswagen pickup truck ideas officially shelved for North America
- 3 charged in ‘targeted’ shooting that killed toddler at a Wichita apartment, police say
- Skins Game to make return to Thanksgiving week with a modern look
- 15-year-old from Massachusetts arrested in shooting of Vermont woman found in a vehicle
- 2024 second base rankings: Iron man Marcus Semien leads AL, depth rules NL
- 'Oppenheimer' producer and director Christopher Nolan scores big at the 2024 PGA Awards
Recommendation
The FBI should have done more to collect intelligence before the Capitol riot, watchdog finds
No retirement plan, no problem: These states set up automatic IRAs for workers
'American Idol' judges say contestant covering Billie Eilish's 'Barbie' song is 'best we've ever heard'
Famed Cuban diva Juana Bacallao, who ruled the island's cabaret scene, dies at 98
Moving abroad can be expensive: These 5 countries will 'pay' you to move there
Scientists discover 240-million-year-old dinosaur that resembles a mythical Chinese dragon
Returning characters revive 'The Walking Dead' in 'The Ones Who Live'
Bye-bye, birdie: Maine’s chickadee makes way for star, pine tree on new license plate