| Boston.com | - |
YARNELL,
Ariz. (AP) - Gusty, hot winds blew an Arizona blaze out of control
Sunday in a forest northwest of Phoenix, overtaking and killing 19
members of an elite fire crew in the deadliest wildfire involving
firefighters in the U.S.
Fast-moving Arizona wildfire kills 19 firefighters
YARNELL, Ariz. (AP) — Gusty, hot
winds blew an Arizona blaze out of control Sunday in a forest northwest
of Phoenix, overtaking and killing 19 members of an elite fire crew in
the deadliest wildfire involving firefighters in the U.S. for at least
30 years.
The ‘‘hotshot’’ firefighters were
forced to deploy their emergency fire shelters — tent-like structures
meant to shield firefighters from flames and heat — when they were
caught near the central Arizona town of Yarnell, state forestry
spokesman Art Morrison told The Associated Press.
The fire also destroyed an
estimated 200 homes, Morrison said. Dry grass near the communities of
Yarnell and Glen Isla fed the fast-moving blaze, which was whipped up by
wind and raced through the homes, he said.
The fire still burned late Sunday,
with flames lighting up the night sky in the forest above Yarnell, a
town of about 700 residents about 85 miles northwest of Phoenix. Most
people had evacuated from the town, and no injuries or other deaths were
reported.
The fire started after a lightning
strike on Friday and spread to at least 2,000 acres on Sunday amid
triple-digit temperatures, low humidity and windy conditions.
Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo said that the 19 dead firefighters were a part of the city’s fire department.
‘‘We grieve for the family. We
grieve for the department. We grieve for the city,’’ he said at a news
conference Sunday evening. ‘‘We’re devastated. We just lost 19 of the
finest people you'll ever meet.’’
Hot shot crews are elite
firefighters who often hike for miles into the wilderness with chain
saws and backpacks filled with heavy gear to build lines of protection
between people and fires. They remove brush, trees and anything that
might burn in the direction of homes and cities.
The crew killed in the blaze had worked other wildfires in recent weeks in New Mexico and Arizona, Fraijo said.
‘‘By the time they got there, it was moving very quickly,’’ he told the AP of Sunday’s fire.
He added that the firefighters had to deploy the emergency shelters when ‘‘something drastic’’ occurred.
‘‘One of the last fail safe
methods that a firefighter can do under those conditions is literally to
dig as much as they can down and cover themselves with a protective —
kinda looks like a foil type — fire-resistant material — with the
desire, the hope at least, is that the fire will burn over the top of
them and they can survive it,’’ Fraijo said.
‘‘Under certain conditions there’s
usually only sometimes a 50 percent chance that they survive,’’ he
said. ‘‘It’s an extreme measure that’s taken under the absolute worst
conditions.’’
The National Fire Protection
Association had previously listed the deadliest wildland fire involving
firefighters as the 1994 Storm King Fire near Glenwood Springs, Colo.,
which killed 14 firefighters who were overtaken by a sudden explosion of
flames.
U.S. wildfire disasters date back
more than two centuries and include tragedies like the 1949 Mann Gulch
fire near Helena, Mont., that killed 13, or the Rattlesnake blaze four
years later that claimed 15 firefighters in Southern California.
‘‘This is as dark a day as I can
remember,’’ Gov. Jan Brewer said in a statement. ‘‘It may be days or
longer before an investigation reveals how this tragedy occurred, but
the essence we already know in our hearts: fighting fires is dangerous
work.’’
Brewer said she would travel to the area on Monday.
Chuck Overmyer and his wife, Ninabill, said they lost their, 1,800-square-foot home in the blaze.
They were helping friends flee
when the blaze switched directions and moved toward his property. They
loaded up what belongings they could, including three dogs and a 1930
model hot rod on a trailer. As he looked out his rear view mirror he
could see embers on the roof of his garage.
‘‘We knew it was gone,’’ he said.
He later gathered at the Arrowhead
Bar and Grill in nearby Congress along with locals and watched on TV as
he saw the fire destroy his house.
‘‘That was when we knew it was really gone,’’ he said.
He later fielded a phone call from a friend in which he said, ‘‘Lost it all, man. Yep, it’s all gone.’’
Morrison said the fire grew in intensity when winds began gusting at up to 24 mph in the late afternoon.
‘‘You get some winds, and it can take off on you,’’ he said.
Two hundred firefighters were
working on the fire Sunday, but several hundred more were expected to
arrive Monday when a new fire management team takes over.
The fire has forced the closure of parts of state Route 89. It was zero percent contained late Sunday.Continued...
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