As the Yarnell Hill Fire continues to spread in Yavapai County, Ariz., members of local communities are grieving the loss of the 19 firefighters who died battling the blaze on Sunday night. As they ask themselves how and why such a tragedy could occur, federal fire investigators from across the country arrived in Yarnell on Tuesday to answer those very same questions.
The special investigation into the specifics behind the deaths of 19 of the 20 members on the Granite Mountain Hotshot firefighting crew will be conducted by a group of fire experts from a variety of federal and regional fire agencies, according to a report from USA Today.
According to the Associated Press, the independent investigation will be led by Florida State Forester Jim Karels. The secondary team leader is Mike Dudley, acting director of Cooperative Forestry for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service.
Other agencies taking part in the investigation include the U.S. Forest Service Missoula Technology and Development Center, the Missoula Fire Department, the Beaurea of Land Management, and the Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health. There will also be local liaisons to the Yarnell Hill Investigation Team and they include Arizona State Forester Scott Hunt and Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo.
Judith Downing of the U.S. Forest Service has said that the investigative team will include, in addition to the team leader and secondary team leader, a fire-behavioral analyst, a fire-operations specialist, a safety specialist and a person to document all of the information gathered.
"As part of the investigation, the team will review Sunday's weather conditions, fire department records, radio logs and any other evidence that may help determine how to prevent a similar tragedy in the future," Arizona State Forester Scott Hunt said in a statement.
Investigators will also look into whether human error may have played a role in the deaths. The investigation will examine whether the hotshot crew listened and paid attention to the weather forecast, created an escape route, if the training they received was good enough as well as if it was done timely and in the right manner and if there were any obvious oversights by leadership, as well as countless other important details.
The investigation is scheduled to begin on Wednesday and investigators say they will release preliminary findings later on in the week, according to a statement from state fire information officer Carrie Dennett. The end product of the investigation will include an official published report.
"[The investigation] will be designed so we can learn from this and teach up-and-coming firefighters, if there are any lessons that can be learned," said Dennett. "A lot of firefighters died. We have to do this right and get the right team here. It will take some time."
Azcentral.com reports that the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office is conducting a parallel investigation to determine precisely what killed the members of the hotshot crew. Although this investigation is under the jurisdiction of Yavapai County, the crew will be autopsied by the Maricopa County medical examiner. Yavapai officials transported the bodies of the victims to Phoenix on Monday because Maricopa County is better equipped to handle such a large number of casualties.
According to Maricopa County spokesperson Carl Berchick, ten pathologists are assigned to work on the fire autopsies. It's anticipated that the initial results will be released within 48 hours and full reports are expected within 90 days. The findings of these forensic pathologists will be important in finding out how quickly the blaze overtook the firefighters, among other things.
"[Granite Mountain] are as good a crew as there is out there," said Dugger Hughes, a wildland battalion chief whose command includes a hotshot team. "They knew what they were getting into. It had to be pretty dramatic. I'm anxious to see the report(s). I want to know what happened."
- Contribute to this Story:
- Send us a tip
- Send us a photo or video
- Suggest a correction
