The Monster Reared His Ugly Head, the Story of the Rodeo-Chediski Fire

Hadcover book w/ dustcover that is Smyth sewn and presented as a beautiful 8 1/2" x 11" "Coffee Table" book chock full of information on wild fires and almost 300 spectacular photos of fire "up close and personal," most taken by firefighters on the fireline. The Rodeo Fire was ignited at approximately 4:00 p.m. on June 18, 2007 in tender dry forests by a parttime firefighter hoping to gain short term employment. Two days later, a lost hiker started a signal blaze that became the Chediski Fire. Three days later the two fires burned together and became the largest and most destuctive fire in Arizona's history. When finally contained, the Rodeo-Chediski Fire had burned 731 square miles (468,000 acres), destroyed 465 homes and six businesses and forced 35,000 people to flee their homes for as long as two weeks. At the peak of the fire, 4500 firefighters and support personnel worked at controlling the blaze. Jim Paxon was the designated National Spokesman for the Southwest Incident Management Team that responded to Show Low, Arizona to battle the blaze. He became a fixture in living rooms and on radio with twice daily briefings and many special reports carried by all the media in the area. This book is a journal of the fire, day by day, through his eyes. In addition there are chapters on the ecology of forests and fires, a chapter on firefighters and their equipment and tactics in fighting fire and a chapter on Incident Management Team organization and operation during a climax incident like a raging wildfire. The photos alone will give a reader an appreciation and greater understanding of wildfire as a major force in nature.

Jim Paxon was born and raised in West Texas (Lubbock) and always had a love for mountains and forests. He graduated with a degree in Forestry from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. Paxon went to his first wild fire in 1969 and spent the next 34 years "chasing smokes" while working for the U.S. Forest Service in Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. For the last 13 years of his career, he was the Lead Information Officer on a National Incident Management Team. Writing The Monster Reared His Ugly Head was a labor of love and details Paxon's recollections, day by day during Arizona's most destructive wildfire.