Yarnell Hill Fire report

On Saturday, the Arizona State Forestry Division released the findings about the deaths of the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots at the Yarnell Hill Fire on June 30th. The report can be found HERE

I figured I would write a blog about this because I have an opinion and the topic and it's future implications for fighting wildfires have an impact on my life as my dad and brother both are fire fighters during the summer seasons.

To start, I appreciate the care that the investigative team took to look at it in a present form instead of looking a the event retroactively. Too many times people look at events in hindsight and say that that was totally preventable because of what we know after the event occurs. However, the investigation tried to step into the crew's shoes and understand what they knew at the time and what they were seeing at the time through interviews, photos, texts, radio communications, etc.

They concluded that the decisions made were by no means out of the scope of reasonable thought and no blame or accusation was placed on anyone for what transpired. Given the timeline of events, the crew made decisions based on information that they had and that they felt were smart decisions given the circumstances. I agree.

After reading the report, I fully feel like the crew left the 'black" ("black" refers to a safe area already burned of vegetation) to do their job and help save the town of Yarnell to the best of their abilties instead of sitting around watching it burn. For a firefighter, that is your job and that's what I feel like the crew was doing. And you can't go blaming a crew for wanting to do their job and help save someone's property and potentially their life.

There were two issues that I found that should have been taken care of more specifically on the day that they died. One, some radios were not working properly to the tones of the fire frequencies. That meant that certain individuals may not have been getting the correct info or getting garbled transmissions. They had worked around it by allowing those with malfunctioning radios to use others, but still a concern as not everyone had fully functioning communications.

And number two, the decision to hike off the two track road they were on, lose sight of the front of the fire and move into an overgrown bowl of vegetation. No matter how you look at it, losing a clear line of sight on the fire is a bad decision. You have no lookout, you are knowingly walking into closed off area up hill from the fire front and very little chance of climbing out in any expeditious manner if the fire advances. Given the information from the report, the crew had no idea that the wind would shift direction again and run up into the bowl that they had climbed down into and that has to be considered. But, the decision to walk into the bowl itself is a tough one to take.

Overall, I think there are going to be a lot of lessons learned from this tragedy and I am thankful that things will improve. Overall, firefighting is incredibly safe despite the danger that can and does exist. My father has been doing it for nearly 30 years and my brother for 5 and they have never had an issue. Most stories of firefighters follow the same line of safety that my family has. It is unfortunate that reality has to strike occasionally for us to see that it is still a dangerous profession and only getting more dangerous as more urban interface grows, the climate becomes more hot and more dry and the budgets for prevention and suppression continue to shrink.

We pray for their families and all the families of firefighters who willingly decide to put themselves in harm's way for the benefit of others.

Memorial

If you haven't heard about the 19 brave souls who perished at the Yarnell Hill fire last week, you must be under a rock and please take this post as your information. 

If you read yesterday's post, you would know that I was in San Antonio the whole of last week at the LCMS National Youth Gathering volunteering to make the week amazing for the 25,000+ kids who attended. 

I was sitting in a private worship service for all the Gathering workers on June 30th, when Cassie texted me about 19 firefighters who had died. My stomach immediately dropped. I quickly received a call from my mom making sure that I wasn't worried about my family. 

These deaths hit close to home for a few reasons. The first being my father and brother both fight wildland fires during the summer months. My dad has been doing just about every job imaginable from digging line, to leading inmate crews, to being a crew boss for the military and now serving on a Type 1 Incident Management Team, who gets the call to manage the largest and most serious fires that start. He has nearly 30 years of experience with fire and just about anyone who is anyone in the Southwest fire community knows his name. 

My brother has found his calling as a part of an engine crew off of the Kaibab National Forest in Arizona. He is in his fifth season and makes me jealous just about every year he goes out and sends me pictures of being on the fire line. 

They both make me proud to have the last name Boness because I know the sacrifice that goes into 16 hour shifts of hard labor day in and day out to protect lives, structures and resources. They would never say it and I probably wouldn't either if I was in their position, but they truly are unspoken heroes to numerous communities who rely on their expertise to save property from overwhelming forest fires.

The second reason the deaths hit me so hard is because this happened in Arizona, to Arizona Hotshots. It is the most deaths on a fire line in Arizona history, the most firefighters to die on any wildfire in the US since 1933 and the most firefighters to die in America since 9/11. To say this event wasn't significant is to grossly underestimate the sacrifice. 

I feel close to this community despite never setting foot on a fire line because my family, my flesh and blood has spent years of dedication to this industry and I know countless firefighters by name. 

The Granite Mountain hotshots are based in Prescott, Arizona. Only and hour and a half's drive from my hometown. I have been through Yarnell, where the fire occurred, numerous times and feel close to the communities that were affected. All of Arizona does. 

We mourn for the families and lift up those lost. The memorial service for those Hotshots is today and God knows that I will be praying for comfort and knowledge to prevent more deaths in the future.

If you have time, please find the live broadcast online and show your support for those lost. The memorial begins at 11am Arizona time.

My dad and I last fall when he let me out on to the line at a prescribed fire in Flagstaff, AZ.