Fallen Arizona firefighters to return home
PRESCOTT, Ariz. — Nineteen hearses will traverse the streets of Phoenix and the desert highways, cutting through swaths of scrubby terrain and past small towns, carrying the bodies of 19 Prescott firefighters back to this town that, in some ways, has become a living memorial to them.
“You see it in the purple ribbons people are wearing,” said City Councilman Chris Kuknyo, “in donation drives, in flags at half-mast and in the hundreds of flower bouquets and cards left in the young men’s honor at Hotshot Station 7. You see it in the signs that say ‘Prescott salutes our fallen heroes.’”
The remains of the members of the elite Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshot Crew will be released Sunday from the Maricopa County medical examiner’s office and will return to Prescott in a procession that will also take them near the site where they died.
Authorities said the 19 died of fire-related injuries, which include burns, carbon-monoxide poisoning and lack of oxygen. A memorial service will be held Tuesday.
Crowds are expected to gather Sunday at various points along the winding route, roughly 140 miles long, in what is the latest expression of grief over — and gratitude to — the firefighters killed in the blaze that has gripped this area of central-west Arizona for the last week.
Fire officials said Saturday that the roughly 8,400-acre blaze was 90% contained, with only a section in the southeastern area of the fire zone that was not contained. Firefighters were also working in areas of Yarnell and Glen Ilah that continued to smolder.
Although the wildfire, which began June 28 after a lightning strike, has weakened, officials said more than 400 people — including eight crews and 15 engines — were still working to reach full containment. The blaze had destroyed 114 structures, officials said, and left residents of Yarnell and parts of nearby Peeples Valley unable to return home for close to a week.
In Prescott, there continue to be signs of a community coming together. Already, more than $800,000 in donations has been collected by three firefighter-endorsed organizations: the 100 Club of Arizona, the Wildland Firefighters Foundation and the United Phoenix Firefighters Assn.
“I tend to be skeptical about human nature,” said Mark Shelley, a sociology professor at Prescott’s Yavapai College. “But this spirit of cooperation and outpouring of assistance renews one’s faith in humanity.”
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