I live in Phoenix, AZ. & have been up thru Yarnell Hill, many times. That's where the firefighters lost their lives trying to save the town of Yarnell. Yesterday, 7-7-13, I went downtown to pay my respects to those 19 Wild Land Firefighters. They were at the Maricopa County Medical Examiners Office & were to be moved back up to Prescott, AZ. , where they were members of the Granite Mountain Hot Shots. There appeared to be thousands of folks doing the same as I was, paying their respects, as many fire vehicles & other government vehicles formed a line in which 19 white hearse's, carrying the firefighters traveled back home to Prescott. For me, seeing that many hearse's really woke me up to how much & just how many people gave their lives trying to protect other peoples homes, property & our lands. I've never seen anything like that in my 67 years on earth. Quite an awakening.
As I walked along part of the route they were taking, I ran across a firefighter with a Fort Wayne patch on his arm, near his shoulder. I asked him where he was from & he said he was here with another firefighter from Fort Wayne, Indiana. I thanked he & his buddy for coming so far to pay their respects to our firefighters. They had just got off the plane & headed downtown.
A little later, I ran across a man wearing a t-shirt with Wild Land Fire Fighter, on it. I asked him if he, too, was what his shirt indicated & he said "Yes", then he told me that two weeks earlier, he was working a fire in New Mexico with the Granite Mountain Hot Shot Crew that this ceremony was dedicated to. He said that he had all his meals with them, worked beside them & laughed with them & he couldn't believe that so many of them were now gone. Only one survived because he was ordered to move a vehicle when the fire overran the firefighters.
Thank You, so much, for taking the time to remember some of the finest people Arizona has produced. I, for one, appreciate it & so do many folks here in AZ.
Joe Fihn
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