Fires! (True Stories from the Edge)

Ten gripping stories of the most disastrous blazes.

Fire is a powerful force, something that fills us with awe and fear.

Full of drama and desperation, the ten stories in Fires! look at some of the most destructive fires in human history: from the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 to the 1991 Kuwait oil well fires. At the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, firefighters entered radioactive zones to help prevent more explosions. When a theater in Vienna burst into flames in 1881, the crew and fire wardens ran for the escape routes, leaving the doomed audience trapped. Bad navigation in Halifax Harbour in 1917 resulted in one of the largest man-made explosions in history. London's 1666 fire flattened the city -- over 80 percent of it was destroyed.

Fires! forcefully conveys the blinding flames, the choking smoke, and the waves of heat that bring humans face-to-face with one of the world's mightiest natural forces.