True Disasters

The Esperanza Fire started October 26, 2006, in the San Jacinto Mountains above the Banning Pass near Cabazon, California. It destroyed 41,000 acres and dozens of homes and cost the taxpayers $16 million dollars. But by far the highest costs of the conflagration were the lives of the five-man crew of Engine 57, the first engine crew ever killed fighting a wildland blaze. Fire and superheated gases had erupted in a freak "area ignition," sending flames racing across three-quarters of a mile in mere seconds, engulfing the crew and the house they were defending.

Christchurch, New Zealand. September 2010. A city sleeps. In the early hours of the morning came the noise of a freight train and a ferocious shaking the likes of which this South Island city had never before experienced. A 7.1 magnitude earthquake came without warning or prejudice and transformed a city forever, setting off a string of devastating events that were to have a lifelong impact on all who experienced them. This is a personal account of the lasting effects of that day and the effects of all the earthquakes that were to follow. This is the story of how the fury of Mother Nature ...

In this collection of true-life survivor tales, people from all walks of life - a freelance writer, a crew member of the Lynyrd Skynyrd band, a naval flight surgeon, a teenager, and a newlywed on her honeymoon, among others - recount their traumatic narrow escapes as engines stalled, fuel ran out, hazardous weather conditions descended, and landings did not go according to plan.

On the morning of 28 January 1986, just seventy-three seconds into flight, the space shuttle Challenger broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all seven people on board. Millions around the world witnessed the tragic deaths of the crew, which included schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe. Like the assassination of JFK, the Challenger disaster is a defining moment in twentieth century history – one that forever changed the way America thought of itself and its optimistic view of the future. Yet the full story of what happened – and why – has never been told.

Chef José Andrés arrived in Puerto Rico four days after Hurricane Maria ripped through the island. The economy was destroyed, and for most people there was no clean water, no food, no power, no gas, and no way to communicate with the outside world. Andrés addressed the humanitarian crisis the only way he knew how: by feeding people, one hot meal at a time.

In Charlie Mike, Joe Klein tells the dramatic story of Eric Greitens and Jake Wood, larger-than-life war heroes who come home and use their military discipline and values to help others. This is a story that hasn't been told before, one of the most hopeful to emerge from Iraq and Afghanistan - a saga of lives saved, not wasted.

The harrowing story of five men who were sent into a dark, airless, miles-long tunnel, hundreds of feet below the ocean, to do a nearly impossible job - with deadly results.

Lots of strange things are going on at Starling Academy, and some of the girls are suspicious. As they begin investigating, they wonder if there's any connection between Scarlet getting kicked out of the Star Darlings and Leona's troubled mission. When Vega gets sent to Wishworld, she is determined to solve the puzzle fast, but her Wisher is incredibly secretive. Scarlet watches from the sidelines as Ophelia, who is hopelessly unprepared, is chosen to go on a mission.

On November 8, 2018, the people of Paradise, California, awoke to a mottled gray sky and gusty winds. Soon the Camp Fire was upon them, gobbling an acre a second. Less than two hours after the fire ignited, the town was engulfed in flames, the residents trapped in their homes and cars. By the next morning, eighty-five people were dead.

It’s 1942, and London remains under constant threat of enemy attack as the second world war rages on. In the Bethnal Green neighborhood, Nellie Morris counts every day lucky that she emerges from the underground shelters unharmed, her loving family still surrounding her. Three years into the war, she’s grateful to hold onto remnants of normalcy—her job as assisting the mayor and nights spent at the local pub with her best friend. But after a chance encounter with Ray, an American airman stationed nearby, Nellie becomes enchanted with the idea of a broader world.

The daredevil who leaped from a helicopter onto the back of a marlin and rode it rodeo-style. A staggering 3,001 bass caught in a single short summer season on Long Island. A grueling 37-hour fight with Pacific salmon. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction! From crazy billfish quests to the scientist who hooked a grizzly, from "fish catches man" horror stories to those nutty catfish noodlers who grope into the murkiest holes bare-handed, her are fishing's most unpredictable and spectacular tales.

On March 8, 2014, Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 disappeared with barely a trace, carrying 239 people onboard - seemingly vanishing into the dark night. The airplane's whereabouts and fate would quickly become one of the biggest aviation mysteries of our time....

Amid the constant rain of German bombs and the escalating violence of World War II, British parents by the thousands chose to send their children out of the country: the wealthy, independently; the poor, through a government relocation program called CORB. In September 1940, passenger liner SS City of Benares set out in a convoy of 19 ships sailing for Canada. On board were 90 CORB children, chaperones, and crew, along with paying passengers. When the war ships escorting the Benares to safe waters peeled off, a German submarine attacked and torpedoed the Benares.

Forty million people in the US have tried Internet dating, which means 40 million people have probably gone on some pretty crappy dates. Not a Match: My True Tales of Online Dating Disasters is about one guy who experienced more than his fair share. Brian Donovan, a writer and comedian whose work has appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, NPR, and Chapelle's Show, has been on over 100 Internet dates in a genuine search for love and happiness.

In the best-selling tradition of The Devil in the White City, award-winning author Brian Hicks tells the explosive story of the Morro Castle, the elegant luxury liner that burned off the coast of New Jersey on September 7, 1934. The captain died under mysterious circumstances seven hours before his ship caught fire off the New Jersey coast.

His mission was top secret: deliver mysterious components of some superweapon that would end this awful war to the island of Tinian, then return to the fleet to prepare for the invasion of Japan. Little did Captain Charles McVay III know that he would survive his ship's sinking, shark attacks, starvation, and five days adrift in the Pacific Ocean before being rescued. Discover this untold story of Captain McVay and his amazing men of courage: the crew of the USS Indianapolis.

This book tells the heroic true story of one nurse’s survival and recovery from the deadliest wildfire disaster in California history. Camp Fire Girl is a gripping and poignant account of one woman's harrowing journey through the deadliest wildfire in California's history. Written by a courageous nurse who faced the inferno head-on, this book offers a personal perspective on the heart-wrenching experience of surviving a wildfire disaster. As the flames raged around her, the author takes you on a breathtaking and emotional rollercoaster, describing the chaos, fear, and determination that ...

How do you survive when an ordinary day explodes into a battle against nature's most terrifying power? When the sky turns a malevolent green and the roar of a thousand freight trains is the last thing you hear before your world is ripped apart? Tornado: Twisted Tales invites you into the heart of fifteen unforgettable storms through a collection of gripping short stories. These aren't just tales of destruction; they are visceral accounts of human endurance, the desperate courage of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances, and the unpredictable twists of fate that unfold when ...

An explosion at a chemical plant and sixteen men lose their lives. Eight year old Michael will never see his father again. Inspired by true events, this is one man’s deeply moving journey into the past as he uncovers the truth about his father’s death and his mother’s life. Inspired by and based on the 1974 UK Flixborough Disaster, Britain’s largest peacetime explosion until Buncefield in 2005. Told from both an adult and child’s eye view, it is a deeply moving account of how the death of a parent can alter the course of a child’s life. Whilst it is not an anti-corporate story, ...

What would you do if disaster struck? Would you be a hero...or a coward? These are the true stories of people involved in many different kinds of disaster, and how they behaved in life-or-death situations. Hear about a single act of revenge that sacrificed hundreds of lives; how a tragic disaster at sea turned one man into a hero; the train crash that should never have happened and other real-life dramas.