The AM Forum

All you guys, please take a moment to think about the 19 that died yesterday :'(

They were brave firemen, and were on the job to save lives and property.

It was about 100 miles North of my QSA, but it is felt everywhere, even in our small community of Hidden Valley.

Mother Nature can roll some cruel dice in the game of life.

73DG

It's a shame that the smoke from these fires may be causing extreme rain in other parts of the U.S.
This over abundance of rain could 'flow back to AZ' and put those fires out.
It must have been a surprise flare up that caught those guys. Usually the firefighters try to out-guess where the fire is heading in these situations.
Fred

All young guys too. What a shame.

Only one can imagine what a horrible death that must be :'( :'( :'(

Difficult to express,  but what a tragedy.   And,  as W2PFY said,  what a horrible way to go.

Those of us with QTHes in the outback,  especially here in the west do rely on these brave folks who endure incredible hardships all day every day that they are fighting fires.  Hazards, pain and terrors that I cannot imagine.

RIP to the firefighters and condolences to their families and the community.   Vic

I once was forced to fight a forest fire in California. I was in the army and we were out on an exercise. A second lieutenant was throwing out smoke grenades and set a field of tall dry grass on fire. It quickly moved up a large mountain. We had about 5000 men out there with entrenching tools beat it down after a few hours. I doubt if it weren't for the huge amount of personal on scene, we could have done it. As soon as I saw him do it, I thought, what a stupid thing to do!

When our daughter served with the GILA Hotshot Crew for 3 years in New Mexico this kind of disaster was our worst nightmare. We sleep much better now that she has moved on to other things. The hotshot crews are the "best-of-the-best" composed of strong, hard-working, team-oriented young people who work fearlessly and tirelessly to protect the lives and property of the public. The loss of the 19 Prescott crew members is an unbelievable tragedy. Their families and the Prescott community have to be devastated.

I imagine many of not most of you know that Bruce, KF1Z's wife Susan is a firefighter.  When I heard of the tragedy I sent off an email askier about Susan's welfare. Here's his response:

"Yeah, we got that news last night Al.
 
Nope, Susan is here in NV.
 
19 people..   that's a whole hand crew. ( 20 people to a crew)
 
Pretty sad indeed.
 
bruce.."