Fire and Brimstone: The North Butte Mining Disaster of 1917

Put simply, I enjoyed this read immensely.

I say that in full-on disaster-nerd mode. A testimonial on the cover notes a strength of the book as Punke's situating the North Butte Mining Disaster into the context of its day. I agree; that effort was skillful, and it helped me to feel both the human and temporal sides of the disaster. Punke also noted that he intentionally did not included direct quotes in the book unless they originated in a media piece or other document from the era. That was another strength of the writing. It's a non-fiction title that reads like a fictional narrative; it's that accessible.

As a scholar of crisis management and emergency management, I've often told students and clients alike that disasters are unequivocally tied to the context in which they occur. Prevailing thoughts, politics, competing events...all of these things influence how we view the event and the damage it causes. In the case of the North Butte disaster, it's easy for us to criticize the safety measures that were in-place, and it's easy for us to marvel at the level to which a company could take advantage of its personnel. But we're not in 1917. We're not pre-labor regulation (largely). We're not living during a world war (yet), nor are we on the cusp of a recession or depression (hopefully).

Punke's narrative also makes me think of the leaders who were thrust into this crisis. At what threshold does culpability start or end? How much credit do we (i.e., observers from afar) give for effort? Some of my favorite authors on crisis management and crisis leadership talk about managing accountability as one of a small set of key tasks for crisis managers/leaders. This story makes me think about how these characters handled that accountability. On one hand, it's obvious who was at fault, and it's also obvious that they were active in the response and its aftermath. But was that enough? Can a crisis be so big that the appropriate corporate response is to shut down? We all know that it's nearly impossible to put a price on a human life, but when a company does and provides a death benefit to a family, are we right to criticize said company for what it determines, regardless of the number?

I imagine all of you reading this will have varying answers. I'm pretty sure that the way I answer those questions will be different when I return to this review.

So it is with disasters. The interconnections of our complex world make disasters almost inevitable, and each new fact we learn about them changes our perception of the response. Even for those that occurred more than 100 years ago.

Read this book and soak it in. Think about its stories and what they mean. Put yourself in the shoes of various characters. And marvel at the resilience we humans are capable of demonstrating.