2013 — June 30, Wildfire, Granite Hotshot Firefighters killed, Yarnell Hill, AZ-19
–19 ADOSH. ICA Commission Agenda December 4, 2013. Fatality…AZ State Forestry Div.
–19 Arizona State Forestry Division. Yarnell Hill Fire June 30, 2013 Serious AIR. 9-23-2013.
–19 CNN. “Governor calls loss of 19 firefighters in state’s deadliest blaze ‘unbearable’.” 7-1-13
–19 NBC News. “‘For now, we mourn’: Few answers…19 killed in Arizona wildfire.” 7-1-2013
July 1: “(CNN) — They were part of an elite squad confronting wildfires on the front line, setting up barriers to stop the spreading destruction. But in their unpredictable world, it doesn’t take much to turn a situation deadly. In this case, a wind shift and other factors caused a central Arizona fire, which now spans almost 9,000 acres, to become erratic, said Mike Reichling, Arizona State Forestry Division spokesman.
“The inferno proved too much, even for the shelters the 19 firefighters carried as a last-ditch survival tool. “The fuels were very dry, the relative humidity was low, the wind was coming out of the south. It turned around on us because of monsoon action,” Reichling told CNN affiliate KNXV. “That’s what caused the deaths.
“The firefighters were killed Sunday while fighting the Yarnell Hill fire, northwest of Phoenix. Among the dead was Eric Marsh, superintendent of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, according to his father, John Marsh….
“The wildfire, which is considered the deadliest in state history, is not contained at all, according to [Gov] Brewer’s office and other authorities. About 400 ground personnel and 100 incident-management staff are working to control it….
“It was the deadliest day for firefighters since the 9/11 attacks. And it is the deadliest wildland fire since 1933, according to a list from the U.S. National Wildfire Coordinating Group. Twenty-five firefighters died when a blaze burned in light chaparral near Griffith Park, California.
“”Our entire crew was lost,” Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo told reporters Sunday night. “We just lost 19 of some of the finest people you’ll ever meet. Right now, we’re in crisis.” The tragedy killed about 20% of the Prescott Fire Department. Fraijo said one member of the team was not with the other crew members and survived.
“Authorities have information that during the blaze, the firefighters deployed their fire shelters, a sort of aluminum blanket that protects against the flames and heat. The shelters must be timed well. Set it up too soon, and the heat inside the shelter can become suffocating. Deploy it too late, and the fire is already on top of you. Wearing gloves, a firefighter will lay on the ground under the shelter, the ground being the only thing keeping the firefighter cool. The shelter will block 100% of the heat from flames and hot gases and 95% of the radiant heat from the flames themselves.
“Authorities believe lightning sparked the Yarnell Hill fire on Friday. By Sunday night, it had scorched more than 6,000 acres and destroyed more than 100 structures, Reichling said…. The wildfire also forced evacuations in Peeples Valley and Yarnell, but no civilian injuries were reported….
“The blaze hadn’t touched Prescott yet. But like many other fire departments across the state, the Prescott team jumped in to help. “A hotshot crew are the elite firefighters,” state forestry spokesman Art Morrison said. “They’re usually (a) 20-person crew, and they’re the ones who actually go in and dig the fire line, cut the brush to make a fuel break. And so they would be as close to the fire as they felt they safely could.” “In normal circumstances, when you’re digging fire line, you make sure you have a good escape route, and you have a safety zone set up,” Morrison said. “Evidently, their safety zone wasn’t big enough, and the fire just overtook them.”
“Fraijo, the fire chief, said he did not know the exact circumstances surrounding the firefighters’ deaths and wouldn’t speculate on a cause. But he said drought conditions, combined with winds that whipped unpredictably, have made battling the flames especially difficult….
“Before the 19 deaths in Arizona, 43 firefighters had been killed so far in 2013, according to the U.S. Fire Administration. A total of 83 firefighters died last year while on duty.” (CNN (Holly Yan and Eliott C. McLaughlin). “Governor calls loss of 19 firefighters in state’s deadliest blaze ‘unbearable’.” 7-1-2013.)
Sources
Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health. ICA Commission Agenda December 4, 2013. Fatality/Accident L3419-317242683 Arizona State Forestry Division. Accessed 12-14-2013 at: http://cryptome.org/2013/12/yarnell-hill-fire-13-1204.pdf
Arizona State Forestry Division. Yarnell Hill Fire June 30, 2013 Serious Accident Investigation Report. Phoenix, AZ: Office of the State Forester, 9-23-2013. Accessed at: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B36DIycSgbzWSUtjNkl1Z2ROT0k/edit?pli=1#
CNN (Holly Yan and Eliott C. McLaughlin). “Governor calls loss of 19 firefighters in state’s deadliest blaze ‘unbearable’.” 7-1-2013. Accessed 7-1-2013 at: http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/01/us/arizona-firefighter-deaths
NBC News (Erin McClam and Ian Johnston) “‘For now, we mourn’: Few answers after 19 killed in Arizona wildfire.” 7-1-2013. Accessed 7-1-2013 at: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/01/19224279-for-now-we-mourn-few-answers-after-19-killed-in-arizona-wildfire?lite>1=43001