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19 elite firefighters perish in Arizona wild fires

Such a tragic situation.

I've got a friend here who used to be a smoke jumper, and it's been interesting to hear his take on it. For better or worse, the hotshot crews like that tend to be very set on following rank and very hesitant to break, even if it is a matter of running to save yourself vs. following command (good or bad).
Also, the fire teepee things they have are only rated for temps of 6-700*, and as a comparison, the CO South Canyon Fire of 1994 was ~2000*. Not a whole lot that can be done there.

Very sad. My heart goes out to their families and that community.
 
we watched anderson cooper last night when he went through a list of the victims. it was heart breaking. so many of them were fathers and husbands. one was engaged and getting married in october. i about started to cry when he got to the one who had 4 kids all under the age of 6.
 
Yep, and just about all of them (or all of them?) in their 20s.
 
When you say elite, they really are the best of the best. They do one thing, putting out wildfires, and they do it better than anyone else in the world. These guys hike for miles over almost impossible terrain just to get to the fire, then go to work. Its a shame to lose so many fine men. One of the widows is releasing photos of the fire her husband texted her not long before they died. It looks like your typical massive wildfire. Just goes to show you how quickly and dangerous those situations are. They are trained to know what the fire will do before it does it, and it still caught them.
 
DeacHoops said:
not quite all of them. the one from NC was 43. but yeah, most of them.
Click to expand...

Yea, the guy from NC apparently grew up in Ashe County, where I am from. He loved fighting fires and ended up moving out there and, I think, was head of this unit. He is younger than me so I did not know him - but there are a couple of other posters from that area who might have known him...
 
there was a time when my dad was doing special rescue and some other special ops stuff in fl where they tried to get him to get in to these situations. my momma was NOT having it. can't say i blame her with two young kids. that shit cray. hopefully the children of these heroes take some solace in the sacrifice their fathers made.
 
I spent two summers in college on a twenty man crew fighting fires in Washington State and flew to various fires in New Mexico and Colorado. Fighting fires in Arizona is a completely different animal. My heart sank when I read the story.

They trained us how to use those tents, but everyone knew they are essentially worthless. In a lot of fires it might be the heat, but if you are under a fire that is crowning the fire sucks all the oxygen underneath and it moves uphill much faster than anyone can run.
 
westboro baptist church (I'm not even bothering to capitalize that shit) is protesting the memorial service for the 19. Thankfully a local group of bikers in AZ has come to form a human shield to spare the families from having to see them.
 
fuck those guys.



i don't say that often, but for them i mean it.
 
i dont get why people continue to cover them protesting funerals. it isnt news, surprising, or helpful.
 
I think it's more a call to arms for people to come protect the grieving (that's how I see it, anyway).
 
Very few photos have captured the magnitude of losing so many firefighters at one time better than this one.
2cnfok3.jpg
 
My friend was on the road when they were going to pick up the bodies from the medical examiners:
emrh.jpg
 
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