A wildfire in Yarnell, Ariz., killed 19 firefighters on Sunday, June 30, 2013
The deaths of the Granite Mountain Hotshots marked the nation's biggest loss of firefighters in a wildfire in 80 years.
The Yarnell Hill Fire was a wildfire near Yarnell, Arizona, ignited by lightning on June 28, 2013. On June 30, it overran and killed 19 firefighters with the Prescott Fire Department's interagency Granite Mountain Hotshots. The wildfire was fully contained by July 10, 2013.
On July 2, more than 3,000 people attended a public memorial service at an indoor stadium in Prescott. Vice President Joseph Biden, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, and the team's lone surviving firefighter, Brendan McDonough, spoke at a memorial in Prescott on Tuesday, July 9, 2013. That memorial was attended by thousands, including representatives from over 100 hotshot crews across the country, and was streamed live by several media outlets. Individual memorial services were scheduled for later in the hometowns of the 19 firefighters.