Posted on 06/30/2013 10:40:26 PM PDT by montag813
Ironic that you would post this story.
Prayers up.
While these men fought and died, the Arizona Senatorial delegation was busy selling them and their children out in a disgusting vote.
McCain and Flake should be banned from the funeral.
So sad. Prayers for their families. And prayers for the sole survivor.
“Perished” is such a gentle, poetic word for the unimaginable horror that killed them.
One line in the article really caught my attention:
"The average age of the hot-shot crew was 22 years old."
I porfess absolutely no knowledge of firefighting, even more so this highly specialized type of activity, but isn't experience, the wisdom of years very important in this type of work. There is also something called "youthful exuberance and the adrenaline rush." The young feel they are immortal, invincible.
We've all heard the old adage.."There are bold pilots, and old pilots, but there are no bold, old pilots."
I remember long ago as a newly minted, still wet behind he ears, Marine 2nd LT, being told to listen to the experienced NCOs..
I do hope that the after-action report will examine this, as well as other possible contributory factors..
This same crew fought over 14 fires in the past 12 months, as far away as Minnesota, so they would seem to be rather experienced. Check the video at the link. Their crew supervisors are well over 30 or 40.
Will u ping to DJL?
We feel we've lost brothers. We feel for the loss, and those left behind.
We learn a creed here and I want to share it if I may.
When lives are in danger
Though your own is in doubt
You still have to go in
You don't have to come out.
These brave firefighters did all they could until they could do more.
Salute.
Several were found dead inside their shelters. One escaped unharmed. One has burns over 75% of their body and is on the way to the hospital.
Folks, these Hot Shot teams are the most highly trained fire fighters in the world. These folks have 10 to 20 years experience fighting these fires. These are not the sort of crews that are easily trapped by a fire, they know what they are doing.
This fire must have done something completely unexpected and caught them in a situation where they had no time to escape. There was a thunderstorm that moved through Yarnell with winds up to 50 MPH ahead of it this afternoon at about the time contact with these firefighters were lost. There is also some notion that there was a nearby "dry lightning" strike that started a smoldering fire that suddenly exploded when those winds came up.
Americans have a tradition of answering the call when danger threatens their communities. Sometimes danger wins. Godspeed to the Granite Mountain Hot Shot Crew. Heroes one and all. Your families, friends, and neighbors are in our thoughts and our prayers tonight.
This is terrible. God Bless and help their families after this loss. I’m not sure that homes are worth the loss of life in this instance.
Prayers up for Gods hand of comfort to these brave souls, as well as their sole surviving brother hotshot and all their families and friends that will be so greatly affected by their loss.
My understanding from our local tv news reports tonight 22 years old may be the average age... but the team was a well rounded team made up of older experienced guys all the way down to new recruits... these guys were very busy lately, just came off the lines from 2 previous consective fires.
From what they were saying tonight, purely something caused by weather, and an overabundence of fuel... 10 years of drought and no fires in this area for 40 years now... they were on their own with no radio contact, had no idea it was headed their way until too late to get out of the way.
There is a youtube video that shows timelapse of the fire/smoke growing and the thunderstorm building right over the top of it... then the thunderhead collapsed cold air down on the fire and reversed it’s direction 180 degrees
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT1Z5l0hHYk
God bless these heroes and their families.
Is protecting the loss of any property ever really worth loss of human lives? Thats the risk a firefighter lives with daily though and sadly many have perished for that very reason.
Usually hotshots are fighting fires somewhere else, if not another state, at least normally the big ones have not been too close to home (until recently again) these guys lived less than an hour down the road, pretty much in the direction the fire was burning toward... they were protecting their neighbors and their property PLUS trying to stop a fire from racing across very dry arizona wilderness... it sounds like it should have been a relatively safe day for this team, as the fire was going the other way... this team was cutting a worst case scenario fire line, to protect yarnell exactly when the worst case happened. They were out of radio contact and probably had no idea it had turned around until it was too late, as some of them did not even make it into their emergency shelters...
Estimates are 250 homes/business’ lost so far in this fire... this is a SMALL rural community and that would amount to about half of it so far.
Yarnell is a beautifull small town in North Central Az. My wife if from a smaller town 30 miles NW of there. We buried my mother in-law in Yarnell in 2007. This part of Yavapi County is one of the last bastions of the American Cowboy. Please pray for the families of these brave men. They were busting their asses to save the homes and livestock of their neighbors.
This news makes me very sad. How tragic that nineteen brave and good young men voluntarily went into harm’s way and paid the ultimate price. This weak human cries “God, why have you forsaken them?”
TC
Please pray for another member not in the group..I just found out he is in the grand canyon with his daughter and doesn’t know this happened. His wife is trying to get a hold of him so she can get him home safely. Tragic day for all. :(
This team also saved my brother’s home recently. Pray for healing for Prescott. :(
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