The loss of 19 elite firefighters in the raging Arizona wilderness blaze has the experts searching for answers here at home, too.
New Haven fire Lt. Frank Ricci is also is a contributing editor for the national trade magazine ‘Fire Engineering’, and he travels the country giving safety seminars.
Ricci says the fire known as the “Yarnell Hill fire” presented a special and profoundly sad set of circumstances for the team who perished, known as “The Granite Mountain Hotshots”.
“In the fire service, you can do everything right and still find yourself jammed up, Ricci said.
“In Arizona, the standing wind was 22 miles per hour, and that doesn’t take into account gusts, so simply a change in the wind can take a perfectly laid out plan and change everything.”
The state president of the international association of firefighters, Peter Carozza, says he plans to fly out to Arizona to attend the official memorial service for the 19 lost Prescott fire team members.