"Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy"

[redheadedfemme]

 This morning, at 5:00, I went for my usual walk. With the heat wave that's been in Arizona the past few days, you go early or you don't go at all. On the way back, around 6:30, I saw some firefighters headed out of town. The insignia on the side of the vehicles read "Granite Mountain Hot Shots." They were going out of Prescott on Iron Springs Road, headed south.

 

Tonight, while surfing the net and perusing my Twitter feed, I noticed a hashtag reading #yarnellfire. I'd heard nothing about a fire in Yarnell (about 35 miles south of where I live) so I clicked on to find out what was happening. Within minutes this horrible news flashed on the screen.

 

19 die in Yarnell fire

 

Most likely, these were the same people I saw driving out of town this morning. They were profiled in the local paper just this last week.

Tears. Tears. 

Comments

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

I'm always stunned, too, at how fast something like that can happen.

Does anyone have any idea how the fire started? I'll be furious, along with mournful, if I find out it was arson or human stupidity.

[redheadedfemme]

The fire was started by a lightning strike Friday afternoon.

From what I understand, the monsoon storm that came through Prescott Sunday afternoon came just at the wrong time--a "Perfect Storm," if you will. The lightning was popping so much in town I unplugged my computer, and the wind was whipping pretty violently. The wind from the storm reversed the flames from the fire back on the firefighters.