Divebombing the Inferno

A wildfire and a mysterious crash yield big questions.

Wildfires play a prominent role in “Where the Bones Lie.” Thankfully, I’ve never been chased by an inferno, although I’ve seen them burning in the far distance in California, Idaho and Arkansas. While I was researching the book, though, I stumbled upon an old article I’d written for a now-defunct airline magazine about aerial firefighting (wherein giant aircraft water-bomb wildfires from only a few hundred feet above the ground) and a highly suspicious plane crash.

The article contained some nifty, long-forgotten tidbits about fires that I integrated into the book. For the Substack, I thought it’d be fun to republish the original article in its entirety, just to give you an idea of the dangers involved in fighting wildfires—a situation that’s only become worse in the years since I wrote this piece.

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Outside of a dogfight, it might prove some of the most dangerous flying in the world. It starts with a DC-10, a jumbo jetliner designed to cruise at 30,000 feet and 600 miles per hour, and …