A00134 - Peter Leschak, Writer on Wildland Fires and Forest Ecology

 Leschak, Peter M.

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"All of us are watchers -- of television, of time clocks, of traffic on the freeway -- but few are observers.  Everyone is looking, not many are seeing."  (01/05/2022)

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Writers on wildland fires and forest ecology continue to mention Pernin, who provides evidence for deforestation, urbanization, and the conditions for wildfire in nineteenth century America.^[43][44][45] Peter Leschak, in a memoir of his experiences as a firefighter, Ghosts of the Fireground: Echoes of the Great Peshtigo Fire and the Calling of a Wildland Firefighter (2003), interwove his own story with Pernin's. The professional firefighter admired how Pernin, as an amateur without knowing it, followed Standard Fire Order #6: "Stay alert, keep calm, think clearly, act decisively." Leschak recalled James Russell Lowell: "All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action... On the banks of the Peshtigo River, on the verge of bursting into a human torch, Father Pernin was lovely and magnificent."^[46]

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Ghosts of the Fireground: Echoes of the Great Peshtigo Fire and the Calling of a Wildland Firefighter Paperback – July 22, 2003

by Peter M. Leschak (Author)

4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars   (46) 

3.9 on Goodreads

 

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A firefighter's remarkable first–hand account of the lessons of tragedy, courage and faith in the epic struggle between man and fire.

In April of 2000, on the brink of one of the most ferocious fire seasons ever recorded, Peter Leschak discovers the diary of Father Pernin, one of the few survivors of a wildfire that hit Peshtigo, Wisconsin, in 1871. Throughout this harrowing summer, Leschak takes us through Pernin's dangerous clash with the Great Peshtigo Fire while reflecting on his own journey from the ministry to fireground leader. In so doing, Leschak captures the sacred and mysterious pull of the fireground and breathes life into one of the most astounding and little–known disasters to ever hit this country.

Ghosts of the Fireground weaves seamlessly between Father Pernin's struggle with an inferno so hot that not even the Peshtigo River guaranteed safety to Peter Leschak's breathtaking frontline battles 130 years later, offering a compelling look at the courageous and noble pursuit that is wildland firefighting.