Prairie Fire! — Bill Freeman

The Bains family are amazed at what they find when they take up their homestead in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba: flash fires that appear suddenly and rage across the open plain, tensions between English settlers and their Métis neighbours that threaten to become just as violent.

At the same time they're filled with hope. Canada in the 1870s is suffering a terrible Depression, and life at their home in Ottawa had become unbearable. The promise of free land in the West beckoned them like an incredible dream. But the realities of building a farm and a home out of nothing are harsh: they have to learn from scratch how to plough, plant, build a house. And the human hatreds that grow in the prairie soil threaten to overcome them all.

Set against the grim realities of homesteading in the Canadian West, Prairie Fire is the story of one family who struggle to adapt to harsh new circumstances. The book is illustrated with a section of photos chronicling this exciting, difficult period in the country's history.

This is the seventh book in the Bains series of historical novels, well-researched, action-filled narratives following the travels of one family across Canada--from Newfoundland to Alberta-- in search of a better life during the hard times of the 1870s.