Portable shelters couldn't save 19 firefighters (group photo)

[Omaha Steve]

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20130701/DA791BOG0.html

By FELICIA FONSECA and HANNAH DREIER

PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) - With no way out, the 19 elite firefighters did what they were trained to do when trapped by a wildfire: They unfurled their foil-lined, heat-resistant tarps and rushed to cover themselves on the ground.

But that last, desperate line of defense couldn't save the "Hotshot" crew from the flames that swept over them.


Unidentified members of the Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshot Crew from Prescott, Ariz., pose together in this undated photo provided by the City of Prescott. Some of the men in this photograph were among the 19 firefighters killed while battling an out-of-control wildfire near Yarnell, Ariz., on Sunday, June 30, 2013, according to Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo. It was the nation's biggest loss of firefighters in a wildfire in 80 years. (AP Photo/City of Prescott)


All 19 men died, marking the nation's biggest loss of firefighters in a wildfire in 80 years.

The tragedy Sunday evening all but wiped out the 20-member Granite Mountain Hotshots, a unit based at Prescott, authorities said Monday as the last of the bodies were retrieved from the mountain in the town of Yarnell. Only one member survived, and that was because he was moving the unit's truck at the time.

FULL story at link.

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1. They never had a chance

Those 'tents' are designed for forest fires, canopy burning high off the floor.

That chaparral burned close to the ground, effectively broiling those poor souls.

I cannot even imagine...

[uppityperson]

2. Hopefully it was fast and :(

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3. I cannot imagine what those families are going thru

They understand the circumstances.

It had to be more horrible than any of us could imagine.

All but a hand-full of those guys are (were) younger than my sons.

[Omaha Steve]

4. I remember in an episode of Lassie from when I was in grade school

Haven't seen it since. The forester used one of those tents in an episode. No idea what the name of the episode was.