Mourning Their Loss

GL Hill

Co-Editor, The Independent Daily

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

The Independent Daily sends its condolences to the families and friends of the 19 firefighters who have given their lives to protect us here in Arizona. The wildfire in Yarnell, a small community some 70 miles to the south as the Crow Flies from us, represents a part of Arizona that is visually and ecologically much different than what most people elsewhere imagine Arizona to be: Wooded and mountainous, yet breaching the beauty of the outlying desert. It’s an anomaly identical to the majestic region in which we live.

Every year during fire season we hold our breath waiting for the inevitability of wildfire. This year, owing to a lack of typical snowfall, the Monsoon season has arrived much earlier than normal, and with it comes thunder, lightning and rain that turns 90 degree days into calming, moist, blissful afternoons and evenings. The danger is when the rain does not immediately fall...

Prescott, where the Hotshot crew was stationed, is second to none in Arizona. Originally our Territorial Capital, the town has maintained its legacy of stateliness and grandeur. It is a growing metropolis that holds tightly on to its beginnings and honors the complex ecosystem on which it was built.

It’s a small-big town, too, and everyone there - and for hundreds of miles around - feels the impact of this loss. God be with those who have died fighting to preserve our history, our past, our beauty.