YARNELL, Ariz. (AP) — The bodies of 19 members of an elite firefighting crew killed after being overrun by an Arizona wildfire have been retrieved from the mountain where they died.
Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo now says all 19 were from the Prescott-based Granite Mountain Hotshots. Authorities earlier said one of the men wasn’t a crew member.
One man who belonged to the 20-person team survived because he was moving the crew’s truck.
The crew was found late Sunday afternoon with their emergency fire shelters deployed. They’d been battling a blaze moving toward Yarnell, a small town about 85 miles northwest of Phoenix.
The bodies were retrieved Monday near the town.
The fire made it into Yarnell and destroyed an unknown number of homes and businesses. It has burned more than 13 square miles.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
