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.
I understand that losing one’s home is probably one of the worst things that can befsll an individual, but I would hope more planes could be used instead of walking firefighters. I know these brave men chose to fight fires, but it’s terribly sad for them to lose their lives over what is, after all, only material possessions.