Nineteen firefighters who were part of an elite Prescott Fire Department firefighting squad were killed Sunday while fighting the Yarnell Hill fire northwest of Phoenix, Ariz., the deadliest day for firefighters since the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, and the deadliest wildfire since 1933, CNN reports.
"Our entire crew was lost," Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo said to reporters Sunday night. "We just lost 19 of some of the finest people you'll ever meet. Right now, we're in crisis."
About 20 percent of the Prescott Fire Department was killed in the tragedy, but Fraijo said that one member of the team was not with the other crew members and survived. The 19 firefighters carried fire shelters to protect them from the blaze while fighting the wildfire, a kind of aluminum blankets that are meant to shield them from flames and intense heat. If shelters are set up too soon, the heat inside can become suffocating, but if they are set up too late, you can be burned to death with the fires already on top of you.
A firefighter will lay on the ground under the shelter while wearing protective gloves, using the ground to keep them cool, the shelter protecting them from 100 percent of heat from the flames and hot gases and 95 percent of the radiant heat.
Authorities say that the 19 firefighters deployed their protective shelters during the blaze, and believe that lightning sparked the Yarnell Hill fire on Sunday. More than 6,000 acres of land and over 100 structures were scorched, incident commander Mike Reichling said to CNN.
The firefighters were part of a "hotshot" crew tasked with digging a firebreak and creating an escape route, jumping in to help even though the blaze hadn't yet touched Prescott.
"A hotshot crew are the elite firefighters," state forestry spokesman Art Morrison told CNN. "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. Evidently, their safety zone wasn't big enough, and the fire just overtook them."
Fraijo said that he didn't know the exact cause of the crew's death and would not speculate. He did add that unpredictable winds and drought conditions would have made fighting the fire especially difficult.
"Today, our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and loved ones of the nineteen firefighters who lost their lives in the line of duty," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a written statement. "As thousands of their colleagues continue to fight wildfires across Arizona and the West, the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA are working closely with our federal partners including the Forest Service and the Department of Interior, to support state and local efforts."
President Barack Obama also spoke on the valiant efforts of the fallen firefighters. "They were heroes - highly skilled professionals who, like so many across our country do every day, selflessly put themselves in harm's way to protect the lives and property of fellow citizens they would never meet," he said in a written statement.
Fraijo said that the fighters who died in the tragedy were exceptionally dedicated.
"These are the guys that will go out there with 40, 50 pounds of equipment and walk five miles. They'll sleep out there as they try to develop fire lines" to protect homes, he said.
"When a tragedy like this strikes, all we can do is offer our eternal gratitude to the fallen, and prayers for the families and friends left behind," said Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who is set to visit Prescott today, and called the loss "as dark a day as I can remember."
Click here to visit a Facebook page in memory of the Prescott firefighters, which has already gained more than 120,000 "likes."
