Granite Mountain Hotshots Procession through Prescott
The final memorial service will be Tuesday at a 6,000 seat conference center in Prescott Valley. VP Biden and Senator McCain will attend. It will not be open to the public as family, friends, other invited guests and fire fighters from around the country are expected to fill it. Individual funerals for the men begin Wednesday.
The schedule for final activities plus approved donation sites can be found at: www.YarnellFallenFireFighters.com
Well that video will certainly put a lump in your throat and a tear in your eye. I’ve seen several references that say one has to go back to the Depression era to find such a large loss of life in a forest fire. While that is true something very similar happened at a place called Mann Gulch. You probably recall Norman MacLean as the author of “A River Runs Through It” as well as the movie. But he became obsessed with a book that was not finished by the publisher until after his death. The book is call “Young Men and fire” and what a exceptional book it is. The Mann Gulch fire of 1949 was a wildfire in the Helena National Forest, Montana, United States, which claimed the lives of 13 firefighters including 12 smokejumpers who parachuted into the area to fight the fire, but were unable to control it. There’s another similarity also. The foreman at Mann Gulch survived by lighting a fire in the grass then lying down within it. The others refused to do so and tried to outrun it to their demise. Several months following the fire, fire scientist (and father of modern day forest fire fighting) Harry Gisborne, from the U.S. Forest Service Research Center at Priest River, came to examine the damage. His early evaluation of data conflicted with what had actually happened. Having a history of heart problems he was counseled to not attempt the visit but this was too important to him. He did conduct an on-ground survey of the fire site and before the day was out stated that he had been completely wrong about what he had assumed to have happened. He suffered a heart attack and died at the site while finishing the day’s research. If you’ve never read the book and have an interest in the challenges involving forest fires, you’ll really enjoy this one.
I’m mighty proud of this place! You should’ve seen all the roads, not just downtown. We all just parked along the sides of roads and waited for them.
No clapping...lots of flags, scout troops, bag pipes...
I was there...the lines were from Phoenix and thousands paid respects all along I=17
it was gut wrenchin
This one’s hard to watch...
This link found on FB...
Watch the video.