Bodies of 19 Firefighters Killed in Arizona Wildfire Recovered, Taken to Medical Examiner's Office
US News
|
George Zimmerman Trial
|
More ABC News Videos
The bodies of 19 elite firefighters overtaken by a raging wildfire in
central Arizona were recovered and taken to the Maricopa County Medical
Examiner's Office today, Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo said.
The Yarnell fire killed 19 of 20 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshot Crew, who ranged in age from 21 to 43 years old.
Complete List of Names of Firefighters Killed in Arizona Wildfire
Fraijo said the only member of the crew who was not killed by the
inferno was on an assignment away from the incident. However he didn't
know where the firefighter had been deployed.
"He feels terribly and we all feel terribly," Fraijo said at a news
conference this afternoon. "Unfortunately, we have very few words to
express that kind of sorrow."
When the 19 men battling the wildfire had no place to turn, authorities
said they deployed tent-like safety shelters in one final chance at
survival.
"They're a last resort," National Interagency Fire Center spokesman Ken Frederick told ABCNews.com today.
"That would be where you simply have no way to get to a safety zone and
you realize to save your life, you're going to have to deploy the
shelter," he said.
"Often, that kind of scenario means you just have very few moments left
to get in your fire shelter. Nobody wants to get in one," Frederick
said.
Authorities believe the wildfire began with a lightning strike Friday in
Yarnell, Ariz., about 90 miles northwest of Phoenix, and spread to at
least 2,000 acres Sunday amid triple-digit temperatures, low humidity
and windy conditions. By early today, the Yarnell fire had tripled in
size and was 6,000 acres, according to Arizona incident commander Mike
Reichling.
Arizona Firefighter Spokesman: 'They Were the Best' Watch Video
19 Firefighters Dead in Yarnell Hill Wildfire Watch Video
"I said last night that my heart was breaking. I can't even imagine how
the friends and families feel," Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said at a news
conference today. "It's unbearable for many of you, but it's is
unbearable also for me.
"For now, we mourn. Consider this: The fire claimed more lives than any
single disaster since 9/11," an emotional Brewer said. "Just as we
remembered the brave men who ran into the twin towers, we will also
remember the men of the Granite Mountain Hotshots."
Fire shelters became mandatory safety equipment in the 1970s and have
been used ever since. The devices are made of fiberglass and aluminum
that together create "basically a personal tent," Frederick said.
"During a fire entrapment, a firefighter can take it out if its case,
flap it open and then crawl underneath it," he said. "What it does is
reflect away radiant heat and trap cool, breathable air for the
firefighter."
Firefighters are trained to be able to deploy the shelter in about 30
seconds, Frederick said, adding that they have saved hundreds of lives.
If at all possible, Frederick said, a firefighter would rather use an
escape route to get to a safety zone than have to get out the fire
shelter. He was a firefighter for 13 years in Washington and never even
took out his fire shelter, much less deployed it.
Unfortunately, the shelters do have limitations. They cannot withstand
prolonged extreme heat, which can cause the aluminum to delaminate from
the fiberglass. A wind event similar to what officials believe may have
occurred in Yarnell, combined with hot, dry and windy conditions, can be
a worst-case scenario for even the most experienced firefighter.
"You base your actions on what the fire is doing and what you expect it
to do, but if that changes rapidly and unexpectedly, that's the worst
kind of situation for a firefighter," Frederick said.
The 19 deaths amounted to the greatest loss of life for firefighters in a
wildfire since 1933 when the Griffith Park fire in southern California
claimed the lives on 29 firefighters, according to the National Fire Protection Association.
It is also the deadliest day for U.S. firefighters since 9/11, when 340 died.
Read More Here
*********************************************************************************************************************
....
Portable shelters couldn't save 19 firefighters
By Felicia Fonseca and Hannah Dreier, Associated Press
PRESCOTT,
Ariz. (AP) - In a heartbreaking sight, a long line of vans from a
coroner's office carried the bodies of 19 elite firefighters out of the
tiny mountain town of Yarnell on Monday, as the wind-driven wildfire
that claimed the men's lives burned out of control.
About 200 more
firefighters arrived to the scorching mountains, doubling the number of
firefighters battling the blaze, ignited by lightning.
Many of
them were wildfire specialists like the 19 fatally trapped Sunday – a
group of firefighters known as Hotshots called to face the nation's
fiercest wildfires.
With no way out, the Prescott-based crew did
what they were trained to do: They unfurled their foil-lined,
heat-resistant tarps and rushed to cover themselves. But that last,
desperate line of defense couldn't save them.
The deaths of the
Granite Mountain Hotshots marked the nation's biggest loss of
firefighters in a wildfire in 80 years. Only one member of the 20-person
crew survived, and that was because he was moving the unit's truck at
the time.
Arizona's governor called it "as dark a day as I can remember" and ordered flags flown at half-staff.
"I
know that it is unbearable for many of you, but it also is unbearable
for me. I know the pain that everyone is trying to overcome and deal
with today," said Gov. Jan Brewer, her voice catching several times as
she addressed reporters and residents at Prescott High School in the
town of 40,000.
President Barack Obama called Brewer on Monday
from Africa and reinforced his commitment to providing necessary federal
support to battle the fire that spread to 13 square miles after
destroying 50 homes. More than 200 homes were threatened in the town of
700 people.
Obama also offered his administration's help to state
officials investigating the tragedy, and predicted it will force
government leaders to answer broader questions about how they handle
increasingly destructive and deadly wildfires.
Brewer said the blaze "exploded into a firestorm" that overran the crew.
The blaze grew from 200 acres to about 2,000 in a matter of hours.
Southwest
incident team leader Clay Templin said the crew and its commanders were
following safety protocols, and it appears the fire's erratic nature
simply overwhelmed them.
The Hotshot team had spent recent weeks
fighting fires in New Mexico and Prescott before being called to
Yarnell, entering the smoky wilderness over the weekend with backpacks,
chainsaws and other heavy gear to remove brush and trees as a heat wave
across the Southwest sent temperatures into the triple digits.
Prescott
Fire Chief Dan Fraijo said he feared the worst when he received a call
Sunday afternoon from someone assigned to the fire.
"All he said
was, `We might have bad news. The entire Hotshot crew deployed their
shelters,'" Fraijo said. "When we talk about deploying the shelters,
that's an automatic fear, absolutely. That's a last-ditch effort to save
yourself when you deploy your shelter."
Read More And Watch Video Here
*********************************************************************************************************************
