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| Out-of-control Arizona wildfire kills 19 firefighters, including nearly all of elite ... - Fox News Posted: 01 Jul 2013 08:45 AM PDT Eighteen members of an elite firefighting crew and one other person who were killed Sunday in an Arizona wildfire tried to protect themselves by deploying tent-like structures before they were overtaken, a state forestry spokesman says. The lightning-sparked fire, which spread to more than 8,000 acres amid triple-digit temperatures, destroyed at least 50 structures and threatened 500 people in Yarnell, a town of about 700 residents that sits 85 miles northwest of Phoenix, the Yavapai County Emergency Management said Monday. Most people had evacuated from the town, and no injuries or other deaths were reported. Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo said the firefighters, whose names had not been released, were part of the city's fire department. A helicopter pilot discovered the bodies and authorities are working to remove them, a Department of Public Safety spokesperson said, according to Fox 10. Nineteen fire shelters were deployed on Sunday, and some of the firefighters were found inside them, while others were outside the shelters, Mike Reichling, Arizona State Forestry Division spokesman, told the Arizona Republic. It was the most firefighters killed battling a wildfire in the U.S. in decades. "We're devastated," Fraijo said late Sunday. "We just lost 19 of the finest people you'll ever meet." The fire killed 18 members of the 20-member of the Prescott Granite Mountain Hotshots crew, which were known for battling the region's worst fires, including two earlier this season. The average age of the men in the crew was 22-years-old, Fox 10 reports. The other person killed has not yet been identified, Reichling said. Prescott firefighter and spokesman Wade Ward told the Prescott Daily Courier in an interview last week that the hotshots crews are highly trained individuals who work long hours in extreme conditions. The crews, which number roughly 100 in the U.S., often hike for miles into the wilderness with chainsaws and backpacks stuffed with heavy gear to build lines of protection between people and raging fires. State forestry spokesman Art Morrison told the Associated Press that the firefighters were forced to deploy their emergency fire shelters — tent-like structures meant to shield firefighters from flames and heat — when they were caught in the Yarnell-area fire on Sunday. The Cronkite News Service had featured the group in a story practicing such deployment in a worst-case scenario drill. The crew last year had four rookies on its team, according to the story. "One of the last fail-safe methods that a firefighter can do under those conditions is literally to dig as much as they can down and cover themselves with a protective -- kinda looks like a foil type -- fire-resistant material -- with the desire, the hope at least, is that the fire will burn over the top of them and they can survive it," Fraijo said Sunday. "Under certain conditions there's usually only sometimes a 50 percent chance that they survive," he said. "It's an extreme measure that's taken under the absolute worst conditions." Two hundred firefighters were working on the Yarnell fire Sunday, and several hundred more were expected to arrive Monday. The fire has also forced the closure of parts of state Route 89. It was zero percent contained late Sunday. Reichling said Monday that 18 hotshot fire crews are now battling the blaze. The National Weather Service also said there's a 30 percent of thunderstorms and showers Monday in the Yarnell area. Rain could help slow the fire, but the forecast also says the storms could produce gusty winds. "We're devastated. We just lost 19 of the finest people you'll ever meet." - Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer plans to travel to the area on Monday. "This is as dark a day as I can remember," Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said in a statement on Sunday. "It may be days or longer before an investigation reveals how this tragedy occurred, but the essence we already know in our hearts: fighting fires is dangerous work. The risk is well-known to the brave men and women who don their gear and do battle against forest and flame. "When a tragedy like this strikes, all we can do is offer our eternal gratitude to the fallen, and prayers for the families and friends left behind. God bless them all." President Obama, currently traveling in Africa, released a statement praising the firefighters as "heroes -- highly-skilled professionals who, like so many across our country do every day, selflessly put themselves in harm's way to protect the lives and property of fellow citizens they would never meet." Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said the "devastating" loss is a reminder of deadly risks firefighters take every day. "Their sacrifice will never be forgotten," McCain said in a statement. The National Fire Protection Association website lists the last wildland fire to kill more firefighters as the 1933 Griffith Park fire of Los Angeles, which killed 29. The most firefighters -- 340 -- were killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York, according to the website. In another Arizona fire, a 2-acre blaze that started at a motorcycle salvage yard and spread to a trailer park has destroyed five mobile homes in the Gila County community of Rye, located more than 130 miles east of Yarnell. Gila County Health and Emergency Services Director Michael O'Driscoll said no one was injured in Rye. The fire was ignited Saturday night at All Bikes Sales located off Highway 87. It spread to neighboring federal Forest Service land but was fully contained within 12 hours of its start. The Red Cross says seven adults and two children were staying at a shelter set up for people who were evacuated. The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
| Egypt's military gives Morsi's government 48 hours to 'meet the demands of the ... - Washington Post Posted: 01 Jul 2013 08:55 AM PDT CAIRO — Egypt's powerful military issued an ultimatum to the government of President Mohamed Morsi on Monday: resolve the crisis that has pitted hundreds of thousands of Morsi's opponents against his supporters and ground this county to a political standstill—or the military will intervene. Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, commander of Egypt's armed forces, said the military may soon take action to enforce the demands of the masses of Egyptians who took to the streets on Sunday calling for the president's ouster. "The armed forces reiterates its call to meet the demands of the people, and it gives everyone 48 hours as a last chance to carry the burden of the ongoing historic circumstances that the country is going through," Sissi said in a statement broadcast on national television. "If the demands of the people are not met within the given period of time, [the military] will be compelled by its national and historic responsibilities, and in respect for the demands of Egypt's great people, to announce a roadmap for the future, and procedures that it will supervise involving the participation of all the factions and groups." Anti-government activists have called repeatedly on the military in recent days to back them in their struggle against Morsi and his supporters in the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. Many interpreted Sissi's remarks on Monday as a victory for their cause. "I think it's highly unlikely that Morsi will be able to make a deal with the opposition in 48 hours. I don't think anyone wants to deal with Morsi anymore," said Wael Nawara, a longtime political activist, and the co-founder of the liberal Dustour party. "So that effectively means that the military will basically appoint some kind of transition government," he said. The military had repeatedly signaled that it does not want to return to the helm of politics, which it commanded — turbulently — in the first year and a half after the ouster of longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak in February, 2011. But Sissi also said earlier this month that the army would step in if Egypt's political crisis worsened. Before the military's announcement on Monday, four of Morsi's cabinet ministers submitted their resignations, in a show of solidarity with the anti-government protesters, the state news wire reported. In the early morning, protesters stormed and ransacked the Muslim Brotherhood's Cairo headquarters, looting its offices, and setting fire to sections of the eight-story building as police officers looked on. Several Muslim Brotherhood offices in other cities also were attacked. Sunday's protests were the largest showing of opposition to Morsi since the Islamist leader took office one year ago. At least 16 people nationwide have been killed in violence related to the protests since Sunday, said Saad Zaghloul, assistant to Egypt's minister of health. Protest leaders are calling for a new wave of demonstrations on Tuesday and gave Morsi until 5 p.m. that day to step down from office — a move that analysts describe as unlikely and Morsi supporters say is out of the question. |
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