YARNELL, Ariz. — The Yarnell Hill Fire may be almost completely contained, but the Arizona community it tore through is still reeling from the destruction.
The first sign of fire is a line of orange fire retardant along giant boulders on the edge of town. Yarnell's motel, diner and grocery store still stand intact on its main street.
Head west to the neighborhood of Glen Ilah and you see the fire dodged some homes and completely destroyed others. More than a hundred families have been displaced, their homes now rubble.
Incident Management Team Safety Officer Bruce Malloy drives visitors through in a white van.
"It's just so surreal. Oh, it's very surreal. It was when I got here and these homes were still in flames," Malloy said.
The fire just missed Brant Stafford's home. He didn't know until a couple days ago that his house was unharmed. He said it was a horrible feeling driving down his street.
"Almost vomiting, sick to my stomach worrying about it. Just seeing what happened is very sad," Stafford said. "When you look at the houses that are devastated — friends and neighbors — they’re just out of a place to live. I just hope they have insurance, and a lot of them don’t."
Across the street from Stafford's neighborhood the Incident Management Team has already constructed a memorial for the 19 firefighters who died trying to save the town. Public Information Officer Brad Pitassi points to a gray ridge in the distance.
"There's a flag waving in the wind at half mast, so that's the area where the crew deployed their shelter and that's our hallowed ground," Pitassi said.
While the town of Yarnell has suffered so much damage, residents say again and again that none of it compares to the 19 lives lost.
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Hundreds gathered on the lawns of the Yavapai County Courthouse on Friday afternoon to memorialize the legacies of the 19 elite Granite Mountain Hotshots who lost their lives in the violent, sudden firestorm that fell on them a decade ago. -
The Show spoke with Frances Lechner, president of the Yarnell Area Resource Group, about the 10-year anniversary of the Yarnell Hill Fire and what the day means. -
Nine years ago, the Yarnell fire took the lives of 19 hotshot firefighters. Members of the community near where the fire occurred still feel the effects of the tragedy today. -
The small town of Yarnell near Prescott was almost destroyed by a wildfire in 2013. In the process of saving the town, 19 firefighters with the Granite Mountain Hotshots were killed. On Saturday, the town of about 600 people dedicated its memorial to the men who died saving their community. -
The town of Yarnell will hold a ceremony honoring the Granite Mountain Hotshots this Sunday, six years to the day that 19 of them died battling the Yarnell Hill Fire.
