Fallen Arizona fire crew will be welcomed home

The bodies of the 19 who died on the job will return to Prescott in a procession.

PRESCOTT, Ariz. — Nineteen hearses will traverse the streets of Phoenix and the desert highways, cutting through swaths of scrubby terrain and past small towns, carrying the bodies of 19 Prescott firefighters back to this town that, in some ways, has become a living memorial to them.

“You see it in the purple ribbons people are wearing,” said City Councilman Chris Kuknyo, “in donation drives, in f lags at half-mast and in the hundreds of flower bouquets and cards left in the young men’s honor at Hotshot Station 7. You see it in the signs that say ‘Prescott salutes our fallen heroes.’ ”

The remains of the members of the elite Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshot Crew will be released Sunday from the Maricopa County medical examiner’s office and will return to Prescott in a procession that will also take them near the site where they died.

Authorities said the 19 died of fire-related injuries, which include burns, carbon monoxide poisoning and lack of oxygen.

A memorial service will be held Tuesday.

Crowds are expected to gather Sunday at various points along the winding route, roughly 140 miles long, in what is the latest expression of grief over — and gratitude to — the firefighters killed in the blaze that has gripped this area of centralwest Arizona for the last week.

Fire officials said Saturday that the roughly 8,400acre blaze was 90% contained, with only a section in the southeastern area of the fire zone that was not contained. Firefighters were also working in areas of Yar- nell and Glen Ilah that continued to smolder.

Although the wildfire, which began June 28 after a lightning strike, has weakened, officials said more than 400 people — including eight crews and 15 engines — were still working to reach full containment. The blaze had destroyed 114 structures, officials said, and left residents of Yarnell and parts of nearby Peeples Valley unable to return home for close to a week.

In Prescott, there continue to be signs of a community coming together. Already, more than $800,000 in donations has been collected by three firefighter-endorsed organizations.

“I tend to be skeptical about human nature,” said Mark Shelley, a sociology professor at Prescott’s Yavapai College. “But this spirit of cooperation and outpouring of assistance renews one’s faith in humanity.”