KJZZ Reporter Remembers Yarnell Hill Fire: 'The Hardest Assignment I've Ever Had To Cover'

Flags across Arizona are flying at half-staff in honor of the Granite Mountain Hotshots. Thursday marks three years since 19 members of the elite fire-fighting team were killed battling the Yarnell Hill Fire.

The firefighters died when they became trapped in a box canyon just west of Yarnell. The lightning-sparked blaze burned 8,000 acres, and destroyed 114 homes.

KJZZ reporter Laurel Morales covered the fire and its aftermath. She remembers the phone call that set her on the hardest assignment she's ever had to cover.

Full conversation

STEVE GOLDSTEIN: Laurel, when did you first hear about the Yarnell Hill Fire?

LAUREL MORALES: So it was three years ago today, the men were actually killed. It was almost 5 o'clock in the evening. I had just put my kids to bed when I got a call from NPR editor Jason DeRose.

And I drove to the Flagstaff station right away and called a Prescott PIO. All he could do was confirm that all but one of the Granite Mountain hotshots had been killed.

And he could look out his window and describe what he could see, which were flames in the distance. They were still notifying families and not releasing the name of the one survivor. So you can imagine the loved ones who had heard news reports were just praying that that one survivor was theirs.

GOLDSTEIN: Now a tragedy like this is obviously very rare in American history, and everyone seemed to be shocked that it occurred, of course. I mean it was amazing the impact that it had. What was it like covering that and, and talking to people after such a tragic incident?

MORALES: Well, it was the hardest assignment I've ever had to cover. By the time I got down to Yarnell, the morning after they had called in a Type 3 incident command team. And so I talked to the outgoing fire boss and then the evacuees at the Red Cross shelter.

And so, but the town, it was amazing how they all came together and they held a community service that day, the day after to support the families, and it was the most heartbreaking event I've ever witnessed.

Don Devendorf was the division chief of Prescott Fire Department at the time, and he spoke to the community and really, had some comforting words for them at this time.

DON DEVENDORF: “They were a well-oiled machine of extremely skilled young and not so young 30s men that had made a career out of this, and the only thing that I can imagine is that something went horribly, horribly wrong from a weather standpoint.”

GOLDSTEIN: And because of the magnitude of what happened, all these firefighters being killed in such an unexpected fashion. Obviously there were investigations into this. What ultimately was concluded about what happened and why?

MORALES: Yeah, so there were, there were two investigations done. The first one by the Arizona State Forestry Division that really made few conclusions and really didn't point any fingers. The second investigation by the Arizona Division of Occupational Health and Safety talked more about the fact that protecting homes took priority over the firefighters' lives.

And they should have pulled crews off the fire when the storm was forecast, this, this storm that sort of made the fire blow up and take over the box canyon, where the Granite Mountain hotshots were. Also, it pointed out that these homes were built right next to a lot of dry chaparral. A few homeowners had cleared trees surrounding the homes.

But there were no definitive answers as to why the Granite Mountain hotshots left the safety zone and headed into the box canyon, which wound up being their death trap.