Remembering the deadly Yarnell Hill fire five years later

June 28, 2013

At 5:36 p.m., lightning ignites a fire on Bureau of Land Management land near Yarnell, Ariz., which is about 80 miles northwest of Phoenix.

During the night and second day of the fire it covers 300 acres.

June 30, 2013

Strong winds, long-term drought and high temperatures help the fire grow from 300 acres to 2,000 acres.

Residents of Peeples Valley and the town of Yarnell are evacuated and the fire approaches Glenn Ilah.

Homes and businesses burn.

June 30, 2013

Nineteen firefighters with the Prescott Fire Department's Granite Mountain Hotshots are overrun by the fire and killed. It was later discovered that they had deployed emergency fire shelters.

The sole survivor of the crew had been a lookout and had alerted the crew of changes in the fire's path. He was moving a truck when the crew was overrun.

July 1, 2013

Authorities release the names and ages of the 19 firefighters from the Granite Mountain Hotshots who died the day before.

One, Billy Warneke, lived in Avra Valley.

They are:

• Andrew Ashcraft - 29
• Kevin Woyjeck - 21
• Anthony Rose - 23
• Eric Marsh - 43
• Christopher MacKenzie -30
• Robert Caldwell - 23
• Clayton Whitted - 28
• Scott Norris - 28
• Dustin Deford - 24
• Sean Misner - 26
• Garret Zuppiger - 27
• Travis Carter - 31
• Grant McKee - 21
• Travis Turbyfill - 27
• Jesse Steed - 36
• Wade Parker - 22
• Joe Thurston - 32
• William Warneke - 25
• John Percin -24

July 1, 2013

The fire grows to more than 8,300 acres and there are more evacuations.

The fire is completely uncontrolled and more than 400 firefighters are on the line.

July 2, 2013

The fire is now eight percent contained, but has not grown in 24 hours.

The fire is now 45 percent contained and is not growing on July 3, 2013. By July 10, 2013, it is 100 percent contained.

127 buildings in Yarnell and two in Peeples Valley have been destroyed, but the damage goes much deeper.

Report by the Pacific Biodiversity Institute released mid-July says Yarnell and Glen Ilah areas not prepared for a wildfire. Most of the buildings did not have proper buffer zones. 95 percent of those that did survived. It had been at least 40 years since Yarnell had had a wildfire and it was due. Story by LA Times

A story by the LA Times reports that according to a report by the Pacific Biodiversity Institute released in July 2013, the Yarnell and Glen Ilah areas were not prepared for the wildfire.

It had been more than 40 years since the area had seen a wildfire and most of the homes and buildings did not have proper buffer zones to help mitigate fire damage to buildings. Of those that had the proper buffers, 95 percent survived.

The study used satellite photos from before the fire to determine that these communities and others were not well prepared.

July 8, 2013

A caravan of 19 white hearses carrying the deceased firefighters begins in Phoenix, moves through the cities and towns affected by the Yarnell Hill fire and ends in Prescott.

Along the way, onlookers pay their respects by waving flags and mementos of the Granite Mountain Hotshots.

A firefighter tradition in the United States was followed for the Granite Mountain Hotshots who died as it is with any firefighter.

Once the bodies were discovered, each fallen firefighter was watched over by a brother firefighter as the fallen made their journeys from the scene, to the medical examiner, to the funeral homes, in the hearses and every step of the way until they were interred. The fallen were never left alone.