Examine the catastrophe. Understand what went wrong. Build a safer future with Anthony Finchum, former firefighter, current fire investigator, and host of Disastrous History.

In the Wake of Disaster takes readers inside some of history’s most devastating catastrophes to uncover not only what went wrong, but what humanity learned from the wreckage.

From the Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire that killed 492 people in Boston to the horrific 24 Hours of Le Mans crash, from the Big Creek Fire to disasters born of human error, technological failure, and the forces of nature, these are stories of moments when everything went catastrophically wrong. But they are also stories of what came next.

Drawing on his experience as a firefighter and fire investigator, Anthony Finchum explores the science, decisions, failures, and circumstances behind each disaster, revealing how seemingly small mistakes can have enormous consequences and how tragedy can expose weaknesses we never knew existed.

Readers will:

• Go inside history’s most devastating disasters, from the Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire in Boston and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire to the 1955 Le Mans crash and the New London School explosion.

• Discover how catastrophe unfolds across every kind of landscape, by dissecting the 1910 Great Burn in the American West and the 1936 Tupelo-Gainesville tornado outbreak to the Grand Island tornado and Buffalo Creek Flood.

• Understand what these disasters taught us, and how tragedy drove changes in building codes, safety standards, emergency response, engineering, and the way we prepare for the next catastrophe.

In the Wake of Disaster is a journey into the moments when everything went wrong, and how we managed to rise from the ashes. Because every catastrophe leaves something behind: a warning, a lesson, a new way forward.

If you loved The Great Halifax Explosion, Midnight in Chernobyl, and The Indifferent Stars Above, In the Wake of Disaster is a must-read.