Flame and Fortune in the American West uses the 1991 Oakland Hills Tunnel Fire as a starting point to examine the ongoing politics, folly and avarice shaping the production of increasingly widespread yet dangerous suburban and exurban landscapes. The Tunnel Fire is the most destructive fire – in terms of structures lost – in California history. More than 3,500 residential structures burned and 25 lives were lost. Although this fire occurred in Oakland, others like it sear through landscapes in California and around the American West that have experienced urban growth and development within areas naturally prone to fire. Simon uses techniques from environmental history and political ecology to closely examine the Tunnel Fire within a broader historical and spatial context of regional economic development and natural resource management, such as the widespread planting of eucalyptus trees ostensibly for timber and as an exotic lure for homeowners, and the creation of hillside neighborhoods for tax revenue – decisions that produced a landscape of increased vulnerability to fire. Simon demonstrates how a drive for affluence led to a state of vulnerability for rich and poor alike in Oakland that has only been exacerbated by the rebuilding of neighborhoods after the fire. Despite these troubling trends, Flame and Fortune in the American West illustrates how many popular and scientific debates on fire limit the scope and efficacy of policy responses. A review of these risky yet profitable developments (what the author refers to as The Incendiary), as well as proposed strategies for challenging them, are discussed in the context of urbanizing areas around the American West and hold broad applicability within hazard-prone areas globally.
