![]() In a powerful conclusion to the service, McDonough recited the "Hot Shots Prayer" in memory of his fallen comrades. When the winds shifted over Yarnell, he warned his colleagues, but it was too late. Brendan McDonough, 21, was acting as lookout for the crew. ![]() One member of the Granite Mountain Hotshots survived the blaze. A line of white hearses was greeted by thousands of people, who lined highways and overpasses with American flags. The bodies of the firefighters returned to Prescott on Sunday after a 125-mile procession from a Phoenix medical examiner's office through the state. The men died of burns and inhalation problems, an initial autopsy found. The men deployed their emergency shelters, but they were unable to withstand the severe heat and smoke. The Hotshots were killed when shifting winds led to a rapid swirl of fire that trapped them on a hillside while fighting the flames. Other notable dignitaries in the crowd included Homeland Security Secretary and former Arizona governor Janet Napolitano Interior Secretary Sally Jewell Sen. White House spokesman Jay Carney explained that Biden's "personal experience" with firefighters made him the most "fitting representative of the administration."īiden, who said he did not personally know any of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, described feeling a bond with the men through his past interactions with firefighters who "saved my life" and helped members of his family. President Obama, who spoke this year at memorial services for victims of other high-profile national tragedies, was not in attendance. "They were heroes long before we knew their names." ![]() "The 19 who fell were not only heroes on Sunday, June 30, 2013, to you the families," Biden said. An elite unit in every sense of that phrase," said Vice President Joe Biden. "These men were some of the strongest, most disciplined, tenacious, physically fit men in the world.
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