Narrates the struggles of the overmatched rangers against the implacable fire of August, 1910, and Teddy Roosevelt's pioneering conservation efforts that helped turn public opinion permanently in favor of the forests, though it changed the mission of the forest service with consequences felt in the fires of today.

A fire at the end of the world -- In on the creation. "A peculiar intimacy" ; Roost of the robber barons ; The Great Crusade ; Deadwood days ; Showdown -- What they lost. Summer of smoke ; Men, men, men! ; Spaghetti Westerners ; Firestorm's eve ; Blowup ; The lost day ; The lost night ; Towns afire ; To save a town ; The missing ; The living and the dead -- What they saved. Fallout ; One for the boys ; Ashes.