Park honors 19 hotshots
The Yarnell Hill Fire Memorial Park is dedicated Wednesday to the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots who died on June 30, 2013, fighting the blaze.
YARNELL — Amid a drought and an intense wildfire season, the delicate aroma of rain and the rumble of thunder felt appropriately timed for the remembrance event and dedication ceremony of the Yarnell Hill Fire Memorial Park.
Eight years after the unsettling deaths of the 19 crew members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots of Prescott, the community impacted by the 2013 Yarnell Hill Fire gathered together Wednesday afternoon to remember those firefighters and officially dedicate the memorial park.
To organizers and community members, the park stands as a symbol of a community healing from a devastating wildfire and as a sign of thanks to those who fought to protect Yarnell and surrounding communities. Frances Lechner, president of the Yarnell Hill Recovery Group, told the crowd of 100 or so residents that the park would help honor those “countless indi
viduals who shared their time, energy and funds to help the community and its residents become whole again.”
This thanks was echoed by the community at 4:42 p.m., as attendees wiped away tears while observing a moment of silence for the hotshots.
Remembering the deadliest wildfire in Arizona history
A dry lightning storm ignited a wildfire in the late afternoon hours of June 28, 2013, near Yarnell, a small, unincorporated community about 80 miles northwest of Phoenix.
Within those first days of the fire, the combination of dry brush, hot temperatures and wind gusts caused the Yarnell Hill Fire to rapidly expand. The fire raged through the parched landscape for 12 days, devouring 8,400 acres and more than 100 structures in its path.
The blaze also claimed the lives of 19 wildland firefighters, causing it to become the deadliest wildfire in Arizona history.
On June 30, 2013, a wall of fire surrounded members of the Granite Mountain Hotshot crew as they trekked through the mountainside surrounding Yarnell. At about 4:42 p.m., the 19 firefighters died in the blaze.
Additionally, nearly one-quarter of Yarnell residents lost their homes, totaling 127 houses overall, according to Lechner. This impacted the local school, fire district and water company, leading the community to form the organization to begin the process of rebuilding.
A community ‘forever interconnected’
Part of that recovery and rebuilding process included creating the Yarnell Hill Memorial Park in the heart of the community.
“This park tells the whole story of what happened with the fire,” Lechner said. While a significant portion of the fire’s attention is rightfully given to the loss of the hotshots, the park helps narrate how the “whole community suffered.”
Sitting on a small corner just off State Route 89, the modest park follows a circular path down to a 9-foot-tall steel memorial emblazoned with an image of the hotshots. Along the way, visitors read plaques that detail the impact on the entire community, noting a history of the fire, the losses experienced and the community’s recovery.
The park opened in April after construction was completed, but the dedication took place on the eighth anniversary of the hotshots’ deaths on Wednesday after last year’s events were limited by the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the Granite Mountain Hotshots Memorial State Park opened in 2016, the hike through rugged terrain isn’t the most accessible location.
Instead, Lechner says, the memorial park is “designed for people who may not have as much time, may not be physically able” to hike the state park to pay their tributes to the firefighters.
In the dedication ceremony, Karen Norris, mother of hotshot Scott Norris, emphasized the unifying aspect of the park.
“People here in Yarnell, all the families, the Granite Mountain families and all of our firefighter families — I just feel we are forever interconnected,” Norris said. “Our hearts are always going to be together.”
John Marsh, father of hotshot Eric Marsh, reiterated that hope for the park to unite the community and to ultimately celebrate life.
“I hope the community here have a place for them to get together and show their respects and at the same time have a good time,” Marsh said. “Those boys would have liked for them to have a good time.”