Lost and Stranded by Timothy Sprinkle

Author:Timothy Sprinkle
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2017-10-27T04:00:00+00:00

Wildfire

No one ever expected the fire to grow so fast, or get so big.

When a lightning strike started a brush fire on Bureau of Land Management land northwest of Phoenix on June 28, 2013, near the small town of Yarnell, Arizona, it was similar to the kind of fires that start all over the Western United States every year. Wildfire is a part of life in this part of the country, started by everything from lightning strikes to careless campers, and firefighters know the risks that come with working in the desert Southwest. Still, isolated, remote, and relatively small to start at less than 300 acres, what would become known as the Yarnell Hill Fire smoldered in the wilderness for a couple of days, watched by firefighters and locals but not particularly worried.

Things changed two days later, on June 30, when high winds kicked up, pushing the fire to more than 2,000 acres, turning what had been a midsized summer wildfire into a raging inferno, fed by both the persistent winds as well as acres of ready fuel thanks to the long-term drought that had been affecting the area. Temperatures that were hovering over 100 degrees Fahrenheit didn’t help either.

The conditions were perfect for a monster wildfire. And that’s exactly what happened.

State officials shut down twenty-five miles of Route 89 near the fire, evacuated the town of Yarnell, and issued mandatory evacuation orders for the surrounding canyon country. Hundreds of people were displaced, spending nights on the floors of high school gyms and relying on the Red Cross for aid.

And yet the fire kept coming. Days after it began, the Yarnell Hill Fire had grown to a staggering 8,300 acres and, even as late as July 2, was still largely uncontrolled. A day later, little change. It wasn’t until July 10, a full twelve days after the fire started, that officials declared the fire 100 percent contained and allowed all local residents in to survey the damage.

All told, the fire destroyed 109 homes, partially damaging twenty-three others. Containment costs were later estimated at more than $4.1 million, going for aircraft support, camp support, equipment, and firefighting personnel.

But the Yarnell Hill Fire will always be remembered not for the insurance losses but for the nineteen firefighters who died in the line of duty while working to contain the blaze.

All were members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, a highly trained group of professional backcountry firefighters who made their living fighting wildfires on the ground in places where many fear to tread. Operating in remote areas, they often have to hike their gear miles into the scene and work right in the face of the fire, cutting back brush, digging containment trenches and taking on the tough, physical work of fighting a wildfire.

That’s what they were doing the morning of June 30, after the group was called in to assist with what was, at that point, a fire that was raging effectively out of control with almost no containment. According to the State

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