Wildfire

Wildfire is a 2019 middle grade novel by American author Rodman Philbrick. It tells the story of Sam Castine, a 12-year-old boy who is attending a summer camp in Maine when a deadly forest fire breaks out; Sam fights for his life alongside Delphy, a teenage girl who is also stranded in the forest. Philbrick currently splits his time between Maine and Florida, so the book’s setting is one that he knows well. Philbrick based the text on the Great Fire of 1947, a serious wildfire in Maine. Although the fire in Wildfire is fictional, major forest fires break out every year across North America. The details of the fire in this novel are based on real stories of fires from California and other states. Wildfire is a fast-paced survival narrative that takes place over the course of six days. It was well-received, and it won the 2020-2021 Great Stone Face Book Award in New Hampshire.

This guide uses the 2019 Blue Sky Press e-book edition of the text.

Content Warning: This book and this guide contain graphic descriptions of the death of a parent and descriptions of prescription drug addiction.

Plot Summary

Sam Castine is at Camp Wabanaski in Maine for the summer. A major forest fire has broken out nearby, so the camp must evacuate. Just before boarding the bus, Sam runs back to his cabin to grab his phone. He is on his way back to the bus when the trees in front of him burst into flames, forcing him to run in the opposite direction. He eventually reaches a shallow swamp. He sits in the swamp to recover his strength but gets his phone wet, rendering it useless. The wind turns, blowing the smoke and fire away, and Sam makes his way out of the swamp in search of a road and rescue. After several hours of walking, he reaches a logging road and eventually finds a man-made freshwater spring. Nearby, he stumbles onto a logging camp and spends the night in an empty cabin containing jugs of fresh water.

The next morning, Sam finds many cans of food in the cabin and eats some cold tinned beef stew. He explores the logging camp and finds an old Jeep. The fire suddenly roars over the camp, and Sam barely has time to load food and water into the Jeep and drive away before the whole area catches fire. Sam does not really know how to drive, but he learned a few things from his dad prior to arriving at summer camp, and he manages to keep the Jeep moving along the logging road. Along the way, he meets a 14-year-old girl named Delphy. She was at a fitness summer camp nearby, but she also missed the evacuation because she was lost in the woods. Delphy is tall and strong, but she has an injured ankle. The two drive on together. Toward the end of the day, they find an abandoned summer cabin on a large pond. It does not have a phone, but it does provide a safe shelter where they can spend the night. The kids find an emergency radio; they can hear broadcasts about the fire from a nearby station run by someone called Phat Freddy Bell.

Sam and Delphy wake to the sound of dirt bikes. Across the pond, two men are riding recklessly and shouting. They set another cottage on fire and catch sight of Delphy and Sam, who hurry back to the Jeep and drive away. The fire is once more racing toward them, so they are quick in their escape. As they outpace the fire, they see a moose standing on the logging road in front of them. Sam slams on the brakes, and the Jeep skids and hits a tree, throwing Sam and Delphy to the ground as the moose runs away.

As they are trying to figure out how to get the Jeep down from its position lodged against a tree, they hear a small plane overhead. Eager to be rescued, Sam and Delphy run through the woods in search of a clearing. They do not find one, and the plane flies away. Sam realizes that they are now lost in the woods. They blaze a trail in the hopes of finding the logging road and the Jeep. Delphy explains that she was lost in the woods because she was planning to meet a boy for a swim in the lake, but he stood her up. It gets dark, so Sam and Delphy sleep against a tree trunk.

There is smoke in the air again the next morning. Delphy and Sam search for the logging road and finally locate the Jeep. They use a bough of wood as a lever to push the Jeep off of the tree and back onto the road. Sam drives on but stops to climb a tall tree so that he can see how close the fire is. Fortunately, the fire is far away, and there is another summer camp just down the road. They do not make it to the camp before sunset, but they do find a wooden platform—a deer stand—in a tree. They climb up and spend the night there.

In the morning, there is a heat storm. Lightning strikes the trees around the deer stand, terrifying Sam and Delphy. When the storm finally recedes, they return to the Jeep, only to find a black bear sitting in the backseat. Delphy cautiously approaches the Jeep and uses the long stick she has been using as a crutch to press down on the horn. The bear runs away. Sam and Delphy continue on their journey and soon reach the camp, which is by a long, narrow lake. They have to walk through the woods to get there, as the logging road does not go all the way to the camp. Once there, they find a sign saying that there is a state road just seven miles away. They also find a fully stocked kitchen and more gasoline for the Jeep. On the radio, they hear a bleak broadcast from Phat Freddy Bell, who is now surrounded by fire with no means of escape. They spend the night in the camp’s cabins.

The bikers reach the camp in the morning. They shout, “IF YOU’RE FROM AWAY, STAY AWAY!” (145), and Sam realizes they are setting fires because they do not like outsiders buying property in the area. Sam and Delphy run back to the Jeep as the bikers set fire to the camp. The two men spot them and chase after them on their bikes. Delphy manages to knock them both off their bikes as Sam drives further along the logging road.

Eventually, the road ends on a clear-cut hilltop. Sam and Delphy think their luck has finally run out: There is no way out of the forest, and the fire is approaching fast. On the next hill over, Sam spots a radio tower and reasons that a road must be nearby. He and Delphy drive the Jeep off-road, dodging trees and stumps to reach the radio tower. There, they find Phat Freddy Bell, whom they rescue before driving away. He gives them directions to the main road; there is now fire on all sides of them. Trees burst into flames, “exploding like artillery shells” (176). Sam drives the Jeep into the middle of a shallow lake where the trio wait out the fire before finally being rescued.