Every major crisis is known by a single image that encapsulates the event’s human element. This is the story of one of those images...
Taken in 1972, and titled The Terror of War, photographer Nick Ut’s harrowing image came to represent the human cost of the Vietnam war: a mix of soldiers and children fleeing a napalm attack. At that picture’s centre, Kim Phuc Phan Thi, the author of Fire Road, a first-hand account of the war, and the horror and hope that came in the years which followed.
Fire Road tells of how her life was destroyed when fire rained down from the sky. Covering her completely, buring off her clothes and marking her for life, Kim Phuc Phan Thi’s life would never be the same again. Almost dying from the attach, Kim Phuc Phan Thi is in the unique position of facing the horror from a young age.
But, much as this is a story of the harrowing, it is also a story of hope. After recovering from her burns, Kim Phuc Phan Thi dedicates her life to helping children caught in conflicts. Finding faith, she is compelled to share with others the hope she so desperately needed as a child. Her story will open your eyes to the cost of war, and of the effect it has on the next generation.
The remarkable story you never knew, Fire Road is a once in a lifetime autobiography, and a peek behind one of the 20th Century's most powerful photographs.