Praise for The Fire Outside My Window

The Cedar fire was a landmark event in American and California fire history. It continues to be a valuable case study for fire-line leaders and emergency responders. The Fire Outside My Window captures the epic scale, drama, and impact of today’s recurring megafires better than any other book I know, and Sandra Younger’s harrowing account of her own brush with death should be required reading for all emergency responders and anyone who lives in the wildland-urban interface. The Fire Outside My Window has become a classic account of a historic wildfire.   
​Tom Boatner, chief, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Fire Operations (retired)

Sandra Millers Younger has brilliantly documented what is now a sadly recurring tragedy. But she doesn't stop there--she tells how she survived and leads us into ways we can better live in this world of nature and neighbors. She's more than a survivor. She's a trustworthy guide.
​Dean Nelson, Ph.D., author; director, Journalism Program and Writer's Symposium by the Sea, Point Loma Nazarene University, San Diego

As we in the fire service battle what has become a year-round fire season--from megafires burning across cactus-covered landscapes to wind-driven blazes raging through once-safe coastal zones--we aim to seek out and widely share resources that have the power to shift perspectives, educate the public, and bolster support for first responders. Sandra Younger's book is such a resource, and in my half-century of fighting California's biggest wildfires, few case studies have inspired the resilience or cultivated the information necessary to truly transform and elevate wildfire suppression as much as The Fire Outside My Window.
​Brian Fennessy, fire chief, Orange County [California] Fire Authority; 2023 International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC)) Chief of the Year 

Sandra Younger's book should be required reading for those who live where homes and wildlands--and wildfire--meet. Younger has done a splendid, literate job of reporting her own near-death experience with Southern California's catastrophic Cedar Fire and expanding the account into a broader tale of what it's like for everyone, from firefighters to homeowners, to experience one of these howling monsters, which destroy dreams, landscapes, and sometimes lives.          
John N. MacLean, author of The Esperanza Fire, Fire on the Mountain, Fire and Ashes, and The Thirtymile Fire

Sandra Millers Younger was among the thousands in San Diego County who lost their homes to the catastrophic Cedar fire in 2003. Even though a decade has passed, she captures the terror and loss with vivid strokes in The Fire Outside My Window, a book that’s equal parts memoir and nonfiction narrative. It’s a tricky line to walk between participant and reporter, but she does it well. . . . A signal fire by a lost hunter is what touched off the conflagration. Younger goes as a reporter to see him answer for his mistake in court. She also goes as one of his victims (although she disdains that word) and has to decide whether to forgive him. Powerful stuff.                John Wilkens, San Diego Union Tribune

The roughest assignment of many bad fires that I ever commanded as a CAL FIRE incident commander was the 2003 Cedar Fire. I thought I knew everything about the fire until I read Sandra Younger's book, The Fire Outside My Window. Critical details added to my framework of thoughts, enabling me to better understand not just what firefighters faced at that fate-testing fire, which killed fifteen people, but the serious situation citizens faced. They awoke during the night to find rapidly spreading fire enveloping communities and their own properties. The element of panic encased the moments of real threat. I highly recommend The Fire Outside My Window. This book should be mandatory reading for all fire officers, commanders and emergency managers. Thank you, Sandra Younger.
​John R. Hawkins, Cedar Fire incident commander; CAL FIRE unit chief and Riverside County [California] fire chief (retired)  

Ms. Younger's depiction of her family's harrowing escape from a catastrophic fire will have you sitting on the edge of your seat from start to finish. Her personal story of survival is masterfully interwoven with that of a larger tapestry of tales--of families torn apart by death and injury, of valiant firefighters, even that of the lost hunter who ignited the tragic blaze. Younger's memoir gains special relevance in this era of epic wildfires, not just in California but the rest of the country. This book should be required reading for those who live in harm's way, for firefighters and for anyone who enjoys a well-told, suspenseful story.                   
​Marivi Soliven Blanco, author of The Mango Bride and Pandemic Bread

The Cedar Fire ushered in the Megafire Era, and people around the world continue to learn the same hard lessons described in Sandra’s book after the fact. Sandra’s reporting is comprehensive and extremely unbiased given her experience as a survivor. Emergency responder, elected official or resident of the wildland-urban interface, The Fire Outside My Window will provide you a compelling experience that you will be moved by and learn from. 
​Mark Smith, emergency response trainer and consultant, Mission-Centered Solutions, Franktown, Colorado

I’m excited about Sandra Millers Younger’s 20th anniversary edition of The Fire Outside My Window. From a hotshot with a chainsaw in hand to an incident commander with thousands of resources to direct and be responsible for, my career has given me a front-row seat for many of the worst natural and human-caused disasters of the past four decades. With experience, this comes easy, but what’s hard is to look back and see how actions or inactions affected the lives of those we serve. Many emergency professionals come in, do their job, and go home, leaving the destruction and survivors behind. Twenty years after the tragic Cedar Fire, Sandra’s compelling story of what happened and why remains a relevant reminder for responders on why the work they do is important. But that’s not the only reason I applaud this book. I live in Chico, California, in the shadow of the 2018 Camp Fire that devastated the town of Paradise, and I’ve given copies of The Fire Outside My Window to several survivors as a “must read” for anyone who has lost their home to a disaster and found themselves in Sandra’s shoes.
​Tony Doty, emergency management officer, All-Hazards Incident Management Program, US Department of the Interior (retired)

As fire commanders, we looked at wildfires strategically and as a thing we needed to defeat. This book taught me to remember that there are real people with real lives whose futures are about to change. And that they were the real reason I did what I did and always felt I needed to try even harder. The Fire Outside My Window also marks the moment when the megafires began. In 2003, faced with a siege of unprecedented monstrous wildfires burning throughout Southern California, fire commanders could see into the future and the kind of incidents that would challenge them year after year. This is the story of those who died and those who survived, whose lives were forever changed by California’s historic Cedar Fire—firefighters, regular people who simply lived in the way, and one man lost in the wildlands of Southern California. We all need to learn from them.
Robert Lewin, principal, Resolute Associates, LLC, former director, Santa Barbara [California] County Office of Emergency Management, CAL FIRE unit chief and San Luis Obispo County [California] fire chief (retired)

The Fire Outside My Window is relevant to everyone living in the wildland fire environment. It shares firsthand author Sandra Younger’s experience of escaping an out-of-control wildland fire. This reality of fire burning into the wildland-urban interface will continue to exist, and human actions and reactions can change the outcomes. Sandra's experience allows others to reflect on their readiness for a similar incident and their capacity for resilience afterwards. Her message is timeless. What occurred then continues to occur today.
Paige R. Boyer, assistant director, Operations, Northern California, USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region (retired)

The Fire Outside My Window provides a riveting, firsthand look into the sheer terror and life-altering decision-making that author Sandra Millers Younger and so many other unsuspecting backcountry residents like her faced the night the Cedar Fire roared into their communities. It also delivers fascinating personal accounts of the fire and the challenges faced by firefighters in command of a wildfire the likes of which they’d never been faced with before.
Carlton Joseph, Cedar Fire initial attack incident commander; fire chief, USDA Forest Service, Cleveland National Forest (retired)

After twenty years, the Cedar Fire continues to have a significant impact on both the fire service and local communities. The Fire Outside my Window captures the moments during the Cedar Fire when the world of fire and people collided head-on. Sandra Younger does an excellent job of telling the story, not only from the survivors’ view, but also from the perspective of firefighters battling the flames. Each spring, the San Diego County Fire Training Association hosts the Cedar Fire/Steven Rucker Staff Ride. As part of their pre-study, to help students understand the events that led up to the Rucker fatality, they’re required to read The Fire Outside My Window.
Douglas Elliott, captain, El Cajon [California] Fire (retired)

The Fire Outside My Window is a look into the first megafire to affect California. The 2003 Cedar Fire caused the California fire service to re-think how we responded to and managed fires. These lessons have provided tremendous benefit in an age of modern megafires.
Tony Mecham, CAL FIRE unit chief and San Diego County [California] fire chief