ALASKA SPARK
Blazing Hearts Wildfire Series Book One
Lolo Paige
Alaska Spark
Blazing Hearts Wildfire Series Book One
Copyright © 2020 by LoLo Paige
First published by LoLo Paige 2020
ISBN: 978-0-578-67685-2
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.
This is a work of fiction. Though based on actual events in a real setting, it is an imaginary story that never happened the way it is written. The author has taken artistic license with some details regarding locations and some wildland firefighting activities for the story to proceed smoothly. Every attempt has been made to make the rest as accurate as possible. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.
Front Cover Design by Sylvia Frost
www.sfrostcovers.com
Editing by Three Point Author Services
www.threepointauthorservices.com
Proofread by Kelsea Koths, Kaitlin Simenson, and Margie Faraday
Promotional smokejumper photos courtesy of Buck Nelson, Fairbanks, Alaska
www.bucktrack.com
Promotional photos courtesy of Bobbi Doss, Hells Gate Fire Dept., Star Valley, Arizona
Promotion ads by Kevin Potter
Contact publisher and author at
www.lolopaige.com
Dedicated to the memory of all wildland firefighters who have paid the ultimate sacrifice and who continue to risk their lives to protect people, property, and natural resources from the destructive force of fire in North America and overseas.
For my family and friends, living and non-living,
who encouraged me to be a writer and helped me to keep writing when I wanted to give up.
Thank You.
Cousin Donna, lover of romance: This one’s for you.
I’m so sorry I didn’t finish this in time.
Contents
Fire Line
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Links
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also By Lolo Paige
California Firestorm
Fire Line
Left it all behind
like a fire out of control.
Our love burned us to the ground
from the wild fire in my soul.
Love tore us apart;
burned out, can't ignite that spark.
I can't take it when you're gone.
I can't take it when you're home.
My barren heart is
no place to shelter a dove.
All that's left of the fire line
is a hint of what was love.
– S. R. Cyres, 2020
Chapter 1
In her three years as a wildland firefighter, Tara Waters had not seen a firenado incinerate a house like a nuclear-powered blast.
Until today.
She prayed she never would again.
It wasn't her job to question whether the hand of God had hurled an apocalyptic firebrand, or whether the devil’s finger had whirled stormy air into a fire vortex, inhaling oxygen and exhaling acrid smoke. Her job was to fight the damn fire. The storm fueled it with seventy mile-per-hour winds and spit lightning into the forest like a dragon drunk with power.
Tara stood two blocks from the main road leading into a subdivision near the southern edge of Butte, Montana. She squinted at the flames engulfing the one-story home. Dry stands of lodgepole and Douglas fir lured the hungry flames. The sound of crackling branches and popping needles echoed as sweet-smelling pine, honeysuckle, and sagebrush blended into the sharp reek of burning timber.
She spotted movement on the front porch of the burning house. Her spine prickled.
An elderly man with a walker stumbled down the porch steps. No! He didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell to outrun the charging flames blitzing through crown after crown of towering trees.
“Dammit, someone didn’t evacuate! Where’s the city fire department?” Tara shot a distressed glance at the only road leading into this neighborhood, then back at her boss, Jim Dolan.
Jim barked into his hand-held radio. “Missoula crew needs backup and fast. We can’t hold it away from the houses. We’ll lose the entire subdivision if we don’t get an engine in here now!”
A deep voice on his radio responded back.
Jim’s expression mirrored the dread clutching Tara’s chest. “They’ll get an engine here when they can free one up.”
“There’s not enough time! We have to get him now.” She lowered her goggles over her eyes, flop sweat dripping over the lenses. Tara had never left anyone helpless and wasn’t about to start now. “I’ll get him. I can do it.”
Tara took off and sprinted toward the man. Legs, don’t fail me now.
Resin snapped and tree trunks burst as if dynamited. Pine needles glowed red and crackled. Brown smoke spun to black, as flames rushed at the besieged homeowner.
“Tara!” her boss yelled. “Get the hell back here!”
Intense heat bit through Tara's flame-resistant, Nomex shirt and pants, scorching her chest and legs. She floundered through tumbleweed, tripping on rocks, and weaving around torched lodgepole pine trees. She tugged her orange neckerchief over her nose, willing herself to reach this man.
She pushed harder, faster. Fifty yards left, almost there…twenty-five…I’ve got this.
Smoke billowed and she lost sight of him. She skidded to a halt, her eyes piercing the smoke, frantically searching. When the smoke thinned, she caught a glimpse of him collapsed on the ground. He raised an outstretched arm. He sees me!
A sudden wind gust lunged a wall of flame forward, pitching fireballs bigger than anything she’d ever seen. Flames danced in front of the porch and the imperiled man disappeared inside a blanket of orange. If he screamed, Tara couldn’t hear
