Six years later, Yarnell and Prescott remember 19 fallen Granite Mountain Hotshots
Alison Steinbach
Nineteen bells rang and 19 names were spoken aloud amid somber silence Sunday afternoon in Yarnell, the town at the edge of a wildfire that killed 19 Granite Mountain Hotshot firefighters six years ago.
Every year since, on June 30, Prescott and Yarnell have remembered the 19 men, casualties of the deadliest U.S. wildland fire in 80 years. The Yarnell Hill Fire, which began June 28, 2013, burned across 8,400 acres and ruined more than 100 structures.
Much of what happened that day – most notably why the firefighters changed course from a safe area as winds drove the flames – remains a mystery.
On Sunday, family, friends, firefighters, community members, and passersby gathered to remember the lives and legacies of the men.
At the Yarnell Hill Fire Memorial Park, nearly 200 people assembled in a dirt enclosure that is hoped to become a park dedicated to the hotshots and the fire they battled. The 45-minute ceremony featured speeches from the Yarnell fire chief and the executive director of the Arizona State Parks and Trails, as well as two musical tributes.
The remembrance closed with Marcie and Lew Theokas, the grandparents of hotshot Garret Zuppiger, reading the names of each man. A fire bell tolled after each of the 19 names to symbolize the firefighters’ “last call.”
Simultaneously in Prescott, the home base for the firefighters, community members gathered in the town square as the Yavapai County Courthouse rang its bell 19 times. The bells in both places tolled at 4:42 p.m., the time the fire burned over the hotshots six years ago.
Similar remembrances took place statewide as well. On June 28, Gov. Doug Ducey wrote “Arizona will never forget” the Yarnell 19. He announced that all state buildings would fly flags at half-staff on Sunday “in honor of their service and sacrifice.”
Remembering the 'men of character'
In his remarks opening the Yarnell ceremony, Theokas urged those gathered to come together and live as the hotshots lived.
“If you go to pioneer cemetery in Prescott and look at the plaques on the ground, you would see many of the same words. Caring, dedicated, generous, thoughtful, giving, loyal, and loving, words that describe men of character,” Theokas said. “This is not a place for mourning, but a place to contemplate the lives that they sacrificed, lives led fully and in the best of ways, lives that had a great influence on those that surrounded them, a positive influence, and a deep and powerful impact on others.
"As we remember them and their sacrifice, let’s look at the good in ourselves and in each other, and try a little harder to be people that they were and would have been."
Prescott restaurant owner Augie Perry spoke about time, remembrance and sacrifice.
"As the saying goes, time flies," he said. "Yes, six years have gone by. But to many of you who were here during that unspeakable tragedy, it seems like yesterday."
Perry said in the years to come, "we will never forget" — and indeed, will continue to forever honor the sacrifice and courage of the hotshots.
"We don't forget the heroes among the 19 hotshots who were so committed to their love of firefighting that they risked everything, not only on that day, but every day to keep this community safe," Perry said.
After the ceremony, the Theokas couple reflected on their grandson and the events of six years ago.
Marcie Theokas said the day is important to her as a way for people to come together.
"Show their support, that they remember, that they're grateful, and they're progressing — that's the big thing," she said.
The Theokas couple remembered how proud they were when their grandson was hired to be a Granite Mountain Hotshot. They described how he performed the best at wildland fire training and won a $400 pair of firefighting boots, something Lew said he never could have done.
"He had a career ahead of him in wildland," Lew said. "I could see him going up the ladder and becoming more and more."
He said it's "bittersweet" that perhaps he, being a fire captain, was part of the reason Zuppiger chose to join the hotshots.
A community grown closer
Several of those present at the ceremonies Sunday afternoon described how the tragedy of the Yarnell fire has brought their community closer in unexpected ways.
“Nothing brings people together like tragedy,” Lew Theokas, a captain with the Peeples Valley Fire Department, said. He described how Yarnell and the neighboring Peeples Valley have come together in ways unimaginable prior to the fire.
“Those two chiefs were hugging. Six years ago, those two chiefs wouldn’t have even talked to each other," he said.
Theokas said the two fire chiefs now work together under a mutual aid agreement, new in the past year, in which each fire department assists with the other town’s fires.
Frances Lechner, president of the Yarnell Area Resource Group, said she coordinated Sunday's event. She described how in the years since the tragedy, Yarnell and the surrounding towns, fire departments and residents have collaborated in efforts like fundraising and planning for the memorial park.
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Lechner did not lose her home during the fire, but spent eight days evacuated from Yarnell. During that time, she heard that money had been donated to Yarnell, and decided a local team needed to handle decisions about how funds should be allocated. That team became the group responsible for remembrance ceremonies and for the park project.
"This was the first disaster that I had experienced," Lechner said. "But what it just brought home to me was how — it sounds so trite — but there's silver linings in everything. The goodness that people experienced by helping each other was unbelievable."
Remembering the past and educating for the future
On June 29, 2013, Jim Wren was hiking in Prescott’s Granite Dells when he suffered heatstroke and had to be rescued by Prescott firefighters.
“Prescott Fire saved my life,” Wren said.
“As they were carrying me out of there, they told me the story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots that were going to Yarnell that day. This was the day before it happened. So when they perished the next day, I was really personal about it," he said.
Wren returned to Prescott from Connecticut nearly every year since for the June 30 anniversary, and moved there full time in 2018. He now serves as a volunteer and board member of the Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshot Crew Learning and Tribute Center.
The center is nestled between a Dillard’s and a JCPenney in Prescott’s Gateway Mall.
Inside, walls are lined with more than 700 fire department and other public safety t-shirts that were left on the fence of the hotshots' home station in the days after the tragedy. Displays honor each of the fallen hotshots and include their photographs and possessions.
Wren said in the one year since opening, more than 16,000 visitors from 46 states and five countries have passed through to learn about the hotshots and wildfires.
The center’s mission is to honor the hotshots, tell their story and educate visitors to prevent wildfires and reduce fatalities — to “forever preserve everything that was left at Station 7 after the tragedy in 2013,” Wren said.
A secondary mission is to move to a larger space so that all 1,100 donated t-shirts and “shelves and shelves” of other artifacts can all be displayed, he added.
For the anniversary weekend, the learning center displayed a commemorative wreath. It plans to be open for extended hours through July 7.
For Wren, the hotshots will always be remembered.
“The bells are rung every year at 4:42 — that has continued every year — and we’ve always had some tribute on June 30," he said. "I anticipate we probably always will. I wouldn’t say things have changed all that much — there’s been consistent support for the cause.”
The Yarnell 19
- Andrew Ashcraft, 29.
- Robert Caldwell, 23.
- Travis Carter, 31.
- Dustin Deford, 24.
- Christopher MacKenzie, 30.
- Eric Marsh, 43.
- Grant McKee, 21.
- Sean Misner, 26.
- Scott Norris, 28.
- Wade Parker, 22.
- John Percin, 24.
- Anthony Rose, 23.
- Jesse Steed, 36.
- Joe Thurston, 32.
- Travis Turbyfill, 27.
- William Warneke, 25.
- Clayton Whitted, 28.
- Kevin Woyjeck, 21.
- Garret Zuppiger, 27.
NEVER FORGET YARNELL HILL HOTSHOTS