The Republic | azcentral.com Tue Jul 9, 2013 6:23 PM
About 6,000 family members, firefighters, first responders and dignitaries packed an arena in Prescott on Tuesday for a solemn, emotional memorial service paying tribute to the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots who died in the Yarnell Hill Fire on June 30. As many as 2,000 more watched the service on jumbo video screens in the parking lot.
Vice President Joe Biden praised the valor, courage and sacrifice of the firefighters, speaking not only of the 19 who died but of all firefighters everywhere.
?They saw their jobs not as jobs but as a duty to defend their fellow citizens,?? Biden said, citing their commitment to their mission of duty, integrity and respect.
?Firefighting is not what they did. It?s who they were,?? he said.
Biden told how firefighters had saved his life and the lives of family members on different occasions, an example of their special purpose in society.
?Jill and I didn?t have the privilege of knowing any one of these heroes personally, but I know them,?? he said.
?I know them. They were firefighters.
?I know them because they saved the life of my two sons when a tractor-trailer broadsided my daughter, my wife and my two sons. My wife and daughter died. But for my fire service, my two sons would have, but the jaws of life working for over an hour and a half saved them. They saved my guys.
?My firefighters. Like all firefighters, they saved my life in the middle of the snowstorm when I had to be rushed to the hospital,? with a cranial aneurysm.
?Oh, I know them. You saved my home and my wife, Jill, when lightning struck my home and (fire) engulfed all three floors. The thickest of smoke that no one could enter, but thank God?
?Jill and I know you. You?re a rare breed.?
He then talked directly to the families of the fallen.
?We owe you, the families, a gigantic debt, far beyond what we can ever pay.
?I also know from personal experience, at this moment, as unbelievable as it is, as unbelievable as it is to fathom it, that a day will come when the memory of your husband, your son, your dad, your brother will bring a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye.
?My prayer for all of you is that that day will come sooner than later, but I promise you, as unbelievable as it is, it will come. It will come.?
After the ceremony, a group of politicians led by Biden and his wife met with three to four members of each fallen firefighter?s family.
Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., said family members formed a receiving line behind the stage. She said that allowed her; the Bidens; McCain; Flake; Napolitano; Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz.; House Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md.; Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz.; Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz.; Rep. Ron Barber, D-Ariz.; and Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz.; to all express their condolences.
?It?s been an expression of love and support and listening to family members talk about their loved ones,?? Sinema said. ?I just wanted to let folks know our hearts are with them. We are privileged to be here. The service was tremendous.??
Dan Bates, of the United Firefighters of Yavapai County, referred to the firefighters as ?the saints of Prescott,?? who were fulfilling God?s plan for their lives while making the ultimate sacrifice to protect Yarnell.
?In all my heart, I know that God was guiding them home,?? Bates said.
He said the crew spent more than 500 hours battling wildfires and also trained their fellow firefighters. Their most recent contribution was fighting the Doce Fire on Granite Mountain, for which their unit was named, just a couple of weeks before.
?Anything Prescott needed, anything Arizona needed or the nation needed, these hotshots stepped up and filled the void,?? Bates said. ?Their courage never wavered.??
He also singled out Brendan McDonough, the only crew member who lived. McDonough was serving as a lookout, warning the crew that the winds had changed, and then changing position to save his own life.
In speaking to McDonough, Bates got the loudest burst of applause of any speaker.
?You have been in my heart and all of our hearts since June 30. I believe in my heart that you have been spared for a purpose,?? he told McDonough.
McDonough, wearing a Granite Mountain Hotshots T-shirt, read ?the hotshot prayer?? for the crew and then received hugs from the dignitaries onstage, including Biden and Brewer.
?Thank you,? he said to the crowd. ?and I miss my brothers.
?We?re here today to remember them. I love my family, all of you that are out there. Thank you,? he said, before moving quickly down the stairs and behind the stage.
Bates noted that one of the hotshots sent a text to his mother shortly before the deadly incident. Bates said the firefighter?s mother was concerned about him working during the past month in intense heat.
?Mom, the fire is getting big,?? the text read. ?there?s a ridge down there, we need to protect it. We will rest later.??
Each family was presented with the International Association of Firefighters? gold medal of honor.
As the ceremony let out, hundreds of firefighters from around the country lined both sides of the street leading out of the arena. Roughly 50 Granite Mountain Hotshots alumni stood by the exit doors. Holding back tears, fire and police officials streamed out of the arena and shook hands with the hotshots, thanking them for their service. Friends and family members of the fallen 19, dressed in black, followed, holding hands or clutching red roses before boarding several buses and exiting the area.
Outside the arena, David Mosier, a Prescott resident for two years, watched the service with his daughters on jumbo video screens in the parking lot.
?It?s obviously a tragedy in this region. I think everyone is hurting. I think this is helping everyone to heal,?? he said. ?I heard about (the 19) through the news. I stopped at the police station on Sunday and I saw families crying, who had lost someone in the fire.
?I also attended Monday?s memorial. That in itself shows how this town has come together. There were two or three thousand people. It shows how much not just the community, but the state, has given to support the families,?? Mosier said.
After the names were called again near the end of the ceremony, audience members outside released purple balloons into the sky.
Three women came together to support their husbands, members of the Globe (Ariz.) Hotshots. As hotshots' wives, they said they couldn't imagine what the firefighters' families are going through.
"They come home, and you smell the smoke on their clothes," said Brittany Romero, 23, a medical assistant from Globe. "You hear stories about husbands no longer being there, and it's very close to home."
J. D. Ottman, from the Florence Hand Crew, has fought fires with the Granite Mountain Hotshots and said the ceremony provided closure for him and his crew.
"It's an unfortunate chance you get to come here and see people you've worked with through the years," said Ottman, 40, of Tucson.
Julie Cooley, 50, of White River, attended with her son, Darren Kinney, a 24-year-old firefighter in Fort Apache.
Cooley's husband and other son are members of the Fort Apache Hotshots.
"It's very scary to know that what they do out in fires is very dangerous," she said. "You never know when the wind is going to turn on them."
Patrick Tarango, 55, worked with firefighters when he was in the Army in the '80s. He and other officers traveled behind firefighters to put out the small remains of fires.
"I came because it's the largest loss of life for firefighters since 9/11," he said.
Nearing the end of the service, a firefighter ran a bell three times, three times in a row symbolizing ?the final alarm,?? and a bugler played ?Echo Taps? as mourners wiped away tears. A U.S. Marine Corps flyover, featuring the missing man formation, honored the firefighters and was shown on video screens inside the arena.
A huge group of bagpipers and and a singer performed ?Amazing Grace?? as the crowd began to file out.
Before the memorial started a few minutes after 11 a.m., the Greater Arizona Congress Choir sang ?On Eagle?s Wings?? as dignitaries including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.; and former Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, now Secretary of Homeland Security, respectfully looked on.
A long line of firefighters wearing Granite Mountain Hotshots T-shirts, followed by first responders in their dress-blue shirts, walked in a solemn procession and were seated in front of the stage.
A display of helmets with each firefighter?s name and other fire gear sat near the stage, next to posters featuring the men?s pictures.
An honor guard followed, with firefighters carrying a silver ax, a U.S. flag and an Arizona flag. The choir then sang the national anthem.
?It is a privilege to join the families and friends of those whose lives and sacrifice we honor today, the 19 brave men of the Granite Mountain Hotshots,?? McCain said in a prepared statement.
?I wasn?t lucky enough to know them personally. I sure wish I had.
?These were not men merely worth knowing ? they were men to admire. They were men to emulate if you have the courage and character to live as decently and honorably as they lived. Not many of us can. But, we can become better people by trying to be half as true, half as brave, half as good as they were, and to make our lives, too, count for something more than the sum of our days.?
In the opening prayer, Teaching Pastor Ron Merrell of the Heights Church in Prescott prayed for the surviving family members.
?We thank you so much, God, for these heroes who laid down their lives for us,?? he said.
Darrell Willis, Prescott Fire Department wildlands division chief, honored the fallen firefighters and defended their actions. It was Willis who recited the 23rd Psalm before a team of firefighters retrieved their fallen brothers? bodies after the fire.
?I have full confidence in the their decision-making process. They were diligent students of fire,?? he said.
Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo praised the dedication and the professionalism of the firefighters.
?There is always a threat of something going wrong, there?s always a threat of a risk, there?s always a threat of, God forbid, being injured or killed,?? Fraijo said.
?It was an honor to be their chief. It was a privilege to know them,?? he said. ?What happened on Yarnell Hill is still raw and probably will be for a long time.??
The name of each firefighter was read during the service, a stirring roll call, as a firefighter ran a silver bell.
A Pulaski tool, used to create fire breaks in wildland firefighting, was presented to each grieving family along with a U.S. flag and an Arizona flag.
A slideshow featured candid photos of the firefighters as singers and a flutist performed ?You Raise Me Up.??
Prescott Mayor Marlin Kuykendall praised the hotshots and said, ?Prescott is a small town. What I pledge to you is that we will do our best to remember each man.??
Gov. Jan Brewer said, ?They were 19 heroes, gone at the turn of the wind.
?Our hearts are full of profound sadness today, but they also are full of great pride.??
She thanked President Barack Obama ?for his kind words in the face of this tragedy?? and thanked Biden and other U.S officials for the hard work of the federal firefighting crews who eventually tamed the fire.
Doug Duncan, 70, had traveled from Tempe to visit his daughter. His children both attended Prescott High School and knew many of the 19 firefighters killed, he said.
Duncan wanted to watch the memorial service but wasn?t sure he should join the crowds outside the auditorium in Prescott Valley.
?I was in the Army for 22 years, and I thought I?d get a little too emotional,? he said. ?It was better to watch it by myself.?
So, with temperatures climbing outside, he staked a stool in the dim, cool cavern of Whiskey Row Pub in downtown Prescott. There, a handful of people watched the service on TV, staying mostly silent except to sip their beers in near-darkness.
?It?s a rough one,? said Duncan, whose eyes teared up more than once during the service. ?I thought Vice President Biden was absolutely fantastic. He speaks right from the heart.?
Before the service, authorities asked the media and spectators not to take photographs and to respect the privacy of family members who stepped off a caravan of tour buses, each one decked out with a Granite Mountain Hotshots logo on passenger doors.
Family members walked between two fire buggies, the all-terrain vehicles used by the firefighters when they responded to the deadly incident. The hoods of the buggies were decorated with black bows to mark the somber occasion.
The deaths from Arizona?s deadliest wildfire have saddened and touched people throughout Arizona and nation. A national investigation is under way to learn what happened and to prevent similar catastrophes in the future.
The ceremony drew firefighters from as far away as New York, New Hampshire and Florida, who gathered to pay their respects to their fallen brothers and their grieving families.
The Granite Mountain Hotshots crew, based in Prescott, perished on June 30 in a burnover incident blamed on a sudden shift of unruly monsoon winds.
A lone lookout, who alerted his crew members about the sudden change in winds and then followed team protocols, escaped death in the incident, which happened about a quarter of a mile southwest of Glen Ilah, a small community near Yarnell that was devastated by the blaze.
Many Glen Ilah residents returned Monday to their homes ? or what is left of them ? after the Yavapai County Sheriff?s Office lifted a weeklong evacuation order.
Residents reacted with a mixture of shock, relief and sadness when they discovered an erratic swath of damage, with some homes spared and others destroyed. Many vowed to rebuild their homes, including Richard Mayer, a retired sheriff?s deputy who sifted through ashes to recover ?odds and ends.??
?You have a wildfire like this, it doesn?t have any sympathy for anybody. It takes whatever it wants, and it did,?? Mayer said.
At 8 a.m., dozens of Hotshot buggies representing crews from across the West pulled out from a middle school just blocks from Jim?s Toyota Center. The procession pulled up alongside the arena where hundreds of men and women in T-shirts, khakis and boots lined up single file, among the first to be admitted.
Most stood silently, looking at the person in front of them. The lines at one point stretched the length of the arena.
Jeff Campbell of the Gila Hotshots said it was a solemn and difficult occasion.
?The Hotshot community is a tight-knit group,? he said when asked if he was surprised so many wildland firefighters were here.
He did not want to comment further.
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Mike Dollard, a retired Los Angeles County firefighter. was dressed in his crisp blues outside the arena. He did not have a ticket but felt it was his duty to attend the ceremony.
?I wanted to show support to the men and their families,? Dollard said. ?I know what it means to lose firefighters. It means a lot to let them know you are there in case they need you.?
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Rebecca Kline of Prescott arrived two hours early, accompanying her boyfriend, a firefighter.
?I am glad I?m here, but I don?t know if you can heal from this,?? she said. ?I don?t think I can. I fear for my boyfriend all the time knowing something like this can happen.?
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Retired Lt. Eric Levin of the Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Fire Department drove from Palm Springs to attend the memorial.
His thoughts went back 12 years to 9/11, when members of the Southwest Incident Response Team arrived in New York shortly after the towers fell.
?They were there for us; the least I can do is be there for them,? Levin said. ?I know what it means to lose a massive amount of brothers. Seeing this brings it all back. It?s very emotional.?
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Chief Edward Kilduff of the Fire Department of New York said as soon as he heard of the tragedy that befell the Granite Mountain Hotshot crew, three words came to him ? ?We gotta go.?
He stood outside the Toyota Center, reconnecting with a handful of people he met after 9/11, when he worked with the Southwest Incident Response team.
?We are here to pay our respects,? Kilduff said. ?It doesn?t matter if you are fighting fires in structures or in wildlands. Everyone of us is the same, and we want to be there for them when something like this happens.?
Also contributing to this story were Paul Giblin, Rebecca McKinsey, Dan Nowicki, Miguel Otarola, Richard Ruelas, Anne Ryman, Rebekah Sanders, Zach St. George, Amy B Wang and Stuart Warner and 12 News.
Source: http://www.azcentral.com/news/free/20130709yarnell-firefighters-memorial-service-abrk.html
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