A multi-agency group of investigators from across the U.S. arrived at the mountain community of Yarnell, Arizona, on Tuesday to investigate why 19 firefighters died while battling an out-of-control wildfire.
The team of about 10 investigators will look at whether the elite squad of firefighters – known as the “Hotshot” crew – planned an escape route, took additional precautions that were developed after a similar tragedy in Colorado happened nearly 20 years ago, and if the crew paid attention to the weather forecast.
The months-long probe will also examine whether the crew should have pulled out before the blaze quickly expanded.
Within a matter of hours on Sunday, a fire that was ignited by lightning quickly grew from 200 acres to about 2,000. Officials said the fire, combined with a sudden shift in winds, made it impossible for the firefighters, to escape. It raged about 135 kilometres northwest of Phoenix.
"The wind kicked up to 40 to 50 mph gusts and it blew east, south, west -- every which way," said Prescott City Councilman Len Scamardo.
"What limited information we have was there was a gust of wind from the north that blew the fire back and trapped them."
Only one member of the 20-person crew survived. Officials said he was moving the unit's truck at the time.
The Hotshot team had recently spent weeks fighting fires in New Mexico and Prescott before being called to Yarnell.
On Tuesday, about 500 firefighters battled the wildfire that has burned 8,400 acres, as a heat wave across the southwest United States sent temperatures soaring.
“It’s a hot, ferocious beast of a fire that’s still raging out of control right now,” Prescott City Councilman Chris Kuknyo told CTV News Channel on Tuesday.
Officials said no part of the fire has been contained.
With the investigation still in its early stages, it’s unclear what help an aerial tanker carrying water could have provided for the Hotshot team.
One contractor, Neptune Aviation Services, had three planes making drops on the fire earlier on Sunday. But at the time the firefighters perished, the aerial tankers had been grounded because of dangerous weather conditions, said chief executive Ronald Hooper.
"It wasn't safe for them to be in the air at that time," Hooper said. There were "severe winds, erratic winds and thunderstorms in the area."
But even without the contracted aerial tankers in the area, a U.S. government dispatch logs show at least two other planes were flying over the blaze at the time. There was also at least one firefighting helicopter in the air early Sunday afternoon.
Dick Mangan, a retired U.S. Forest Service safety official and consultant, said it is too soon to say if the Hotshot crew or those in charge made a mistake.
"This just might have been a weather anomaly that nobody saw coming that happened too quickly to respond ."
Safety procedures
The U.S. federal government in 1994 overhauled its safety protocols following the deaths of 14 firefighters on Colorado's Storm King Mountain. An investigation revealed numerous mistakes were made in the way the fire was fought.
"The reforms after Storm King were collectively intended to prevent that from happening again, which was mass entrapment of an entire Hotshot crew," said Lloyd Burton, professor of environmental law and policy at the University of Colorado.
"There are so many striking parallels between this tragedy and what happened on Storm King in 1994, it's almost haunting."
Those changes included policies under which no firefighters should be sent out unless they have a safe place to return to. They must also be continuously informed of changing weather conditions.
"If you don't have those things in place, it's not advisable to deploy a team in the first place, because you can't guarantee their safety," Burton said.
Community in mourning
More than 1,000 people gathered in Prescott on Monday evening to mourn the deaths of the local firefighters. The tragedy marked the most firefighters killed in one incident in the U.S. since Sept. 11, 2001, when 343 firefighters were killed.
“It’s just devastating because these are your friends and they’re in your community,” Kuknyo said. “They go all over the country fighting wildfires and it’s so sad that they were so close to home. They were only about 30 miles away on this fire when it overtook them.
“These are the finest guys that we had to offer, and that’s why it’s hitting us so hard,” he continued.
Arizona's governor described Sunday’s tragedy "as dark a day as I can remember," and ordered flags flown at half-staff.
"I know that it is unbearable for many of you, but it also is unbearable for me. I know the pain that everyone is trying to overcome and deal with today," said Gov. Jan Brewer
The blaze has already destroyed an estimated 250 homes in Yarnell -- where hundreds of residents have been forced to flee. In addition to the flames, downed power lines and exploding propane tanks also threaten what is left of the small town of about 650 residents.
With files from The Associated Press
