Concordia Prof. Follows Arizona Firefighter Tragedy

Group of firefighters

Scott Olsen spent the summer of 2012 studying fires. Big fires. Fires that call for smokejumpers, air-tankers and hot-shot crews. And while Olsen, a Concordia English professor and author, is fascinated by the fire and the path it takes, he’s more fascinated with the people whose lives revolve around those fires and the stories that run with them.

This summer he’d moved on to hurricanes. He’d written the collection of stories about the people who fought those western wildfires. Finished it, so he thought. He’d been waiting for a call from the Hurricane Hunter’s to get his chance to fly with them during the duration of a storm. And then the tragedy near Yarnell, Az., happened. Nineteen firefighter were killed by a fire that changed directions with the wind. Olsen changed directions then too. This was too big to say his original work was complete. He got in his jeep and headed to Arizona.

Read The Forum’s article on Olsen in Arizona.

Read Olsen’s piece in the Huffington Post on one firefighter’s narrow escape.

Landscape with memorial ribbons

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