Survivor served as lookout on deadly Ariz. fire

Associated Press ^ | – 5 hrs ago

[BenLurkin]

The lone survivor on an elite Arizona firefighting crew was serving as a lookout and relaying key information to his colleagues when a raging wildfire trapped and killed them, officials said Tuesday.

Brendan McDonough, 21, was in his third season with the 20-member, Prescott-based Granite Mountain Hotshots.

He was assigned to be a "heads-up on the hillside" for the team on that fateful afternoon two days ago, said Wade Ward, a Prescott Fire Department spokesman who relayed McDonough's story at an afternoon news conference.

Ward said McDonough "did exactly what he was supposed to" when conditions changed as his team fought a mountain blaze near the town of Yarnell, about 80 miles northwest of Phoenix.

[billphx]

Amen!

[VeniVidiVici]

There’s no way to “manage” that stuff. It grows too fast to keep cleared.

Here in Florida they fire-manage fast-growing scrub all of the time