Entertainment), of the real-life activities of the Granite Mountain While her husband was on a break during the early stages. Helicopter crash near Ukraine kindergarten kills children and top officials, U.S. lawyer who died in Mexico was "victim of a brutal crime," family says, Excessive speed listed as cause of crash that killed Georgia football player, Qantas plane lands safely on single engine after mayday call over Pacific, New Mexico lawmaker says shootings suspect confronted her outside her home, Gov. When it came time to vote on the benefits extension, his was the only dissenting vote. the house Billy had dreamed of, the one he promised Roxanne, was built by firefighters, friends and neighbors, and complete strangers, They focus on safety for wildland firefighters, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. They pay to replace or update equipment. Ad Choices, The Familial Furies of Noah Baumbachs The Meyerowitz Stories, Harvey Weinstein and the Illusion of the Vulgar But Passionate Old-Hollywood Studio Boss, The Wildfires Ravaging Northern California. Hot shots involved". He had been saying all season that this would be his last as a Hotshot. Roxanne had married Billy in 2008, but they had known each other since high school. Photograph by Columbia Pictures via Everett, deemed some of its firefighters to be temporary or seasonal,, Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard. California faces dangerous mudslides after monster storms. 'And we'll miss them. Mr Ashcraft also sent his wife a picture of their view of the smoke and flames from his team's lunch spot on Sunday, and Juliann said that she was not particularly concerned when she saw it. Hotshots. Market data provided by Factset. The burly engine man based out of Flagstaff, Ariz., clambered up a small rise of river rock to clip one of his department's T-shirts to the fence. Most of the fire activity had been restricted to the north end of the blaze. is the sole survivor. Because of the dangers of the job, he would always tell us that he loved us.'. Faced with those facts, what mother, father, spouse or child wouldnt want further inquiry?, Dozens of homeowners and business owners in the old gold-mining village of Yarnell, which was partly charred by the blaze, also sued the states forestry agency this week. That's why he did what he did, because he want to protect the community where he lived. He listened intently as she recounted her dream. Death toll: The Yarnell wildfire is the deadliest wildfire involving firefighters in the U.S. for at least 30 years. complete the jobs that they have started. discipline and the book studies and becomes an integral part of the August 5, 2013 / 7:54 PM Some of the more vocal widows became the target of stinging criticism; in online forums and letters to the editors, people called them greedy, disgusting or worse. Jeremy Hunt is mocked over toe-curling 'inflation explainer' video with Aldi and Lidl shoppers face highest inflation hikes: Cost of basic groceries rise by more than 20% at the Is inflation FINALLY on the way down? "They all laid out there that night.". It was Eric Marsh, superintendent of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, who were based out of Willis' department. Mrs Ashcraft sobbed as she recounted the bravery of her beloved husband and his close unit of highly-trained 'hotshot' colleagues, who were overcome by the ferocious flames in Yarnell. In June 2013, when the fire swept through Yarnell, Roxanne was pregnant with their first child, a daughter, born six months after Billy died. She told the Today show how, apart from his family, fighting fires with the Granite Mountain Hotshots was his life. Less then two days after Andrew Ashcraft's life was taken, Juliann Ashcraft spoke about her husband and the other members of the Granite Mountain Hotshot crew. Wednesdays lawsuit by the families, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, offers one possibility: A back burn ignited by Yavapai County Fire District crews essentially, a fire set on the vegetation that stands in the path of the coming flames, as a means of starving the flames of fuel may have critically impaired the Hotshots position, perhaps trapping them or feeding the conflagration. These men lived together. Andrew Ashcraft was only in his third season with the Hotshots, but he'd been working toward the job for years. Devastation is not soothed by a monetary award, Patrick J. McGroder III, the Phoenix-based lawyer who is representing the families, said in an interview. disputes that arose after the tragedy and that drove the townseemingly But answers aren't expected still for months. passionate marriage with Amanda (Jennifer Connelly), a horse trainer, Maybe, he hoped, his friends would walk out of that smoke at any minute. Erics is his The tail credits state the names of the other unit. But the smoke was so thick crews could only guess at where to drop their loads. mothers house. A team of investigators assembled by the forestry division, as well as the Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health, has released reports on the deaths, though neither explains why the men abandoned the safety of the black, as burned areas in the wilderness are known, for the dangers of green land. I saw that it kept growing, Roxanne said. telling residents and municipal workers that taxes might need to go up pregnant. unified in its grief and mourninginto open conflict. ", "I make my best decisions on my knees, and that's where I made this one," Ward said. While his love affair with firefighting predated his romance with Juliann, there was no question which passion burned hotter. The 'But he let us know that he loved us and missed us. 'We grieve for the family. On Wednesday, 12 of the 19 families sued the state, its forestry division and the incident commanders in charge when and before the deaths occurred, pushing to find out how a seemingly routine assignment could have gone so wrong for an elite group of wilderness firefighters, the Granite Mountain Hotshots. He often asks Roxanne, What do you think Billy would want?. 'They died heroes,' she told azcentral.com as she wept. The fires have burned 191,000 acres and claimed at least thirty-one lives, and more destruction may be yet to come. As a municipal company, the Officials have called the fire the worst wildland tragedy in 80 years. "I want to be able to just be mourning my husband, be supporting. Firefighters battling a blaze in Yarnell, Ariz., last year. Published: 14:36 GMT, 6 August 2013 | Updated: 22:49 GMT, 6 August 2013. With family and friends to look after the children, she headed to Prescott's Mile High Middle School to grieve with the other families. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. She wants Billie Grace to meet people who did the work her father did. The action of Only the Brave is centered on Eric Marsh (Josh Brolin), Juliann Ashcraft said her husband took on a new position as "lead saw" this season and that crew chief Eric Marsh, who also died in the fire, had pursued benefits for him. One widow, Juliann Ashcraft, decided to leave Prescott altogether to spare her four children the discomfort of whispers and glares. 2023 Cond Nast. 2023 www.azcentral.com. So Roxanne still follows the progress of fires online, like she used to when Billy was on the job. and how narrow narrative designs are methods for keeping uncomfortable When he is hired as a firefighter, the other members of They are asking the court to force the city to retroactively include their husbands on the states retirement system for public safety employees, which would entitle them and their children to health insurance, increased life insurance payments and the mens salaries. Juliann said she sent her husband a photo of their four children, all under 6, swimming. Because shewants her daughter to respect fire, to be mindful of it, but not to be afraid. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. IE 11 is not supported. It was the deadliest wildfire ever in Arizona;19 men on the Granite Mountain Hotshot crew out of Prescott were killed. "They loved what they did. It turns out that, just a few weeks after the tragedy, one widow, Extraordinary moment shirtless Michael Clarke and Karl Stefanovic face off in a wild late-night scuffle - as MailOnline readers back Jeremy Clarkson to keep his job on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? While her. The blaze had ignited two days earlier with a lightning strike along the Date Creek Mountains above Yarnell. But in rugged, hilly terrain like that where the Hotshots were working, any thunder activity or downdrafts can cause winds to shift and flames to shoot in all directions, fire experts say. I wrote here last week about the exclusions, the prejudices, the blinkered points of view that 6. "They lived together, they fought fires together, and they died together doing what they loved.". Juliann Ashcraft, an LDS wife and mother, appeared on the "Today" show and CBS news Tuesday morning to discuss her husband, who has been hailed as a hero. are embodied in the storytelling methods of classic Hollywood movies, women who lost their husbands in the disaster. That afternoon Juliann texted to report that it was raining at their house in nearby Prescott. In short, Only the Brave comes off as The fire that swept over the Granite Mountain Hotshots left Juliann Ashcraft a widow. home town. Gov. stirring dramatization, directed by Joseph Kosinski, based on a Donuts foil is The 29-year-old former "rookie of the year" on the elite "Hotshot" team, was a father of four, all of whom are younger than 6 years old. At the Sonoita-Elgin Fire District station, Roxanne got out of the truck and introduced herself to the firefighters. Juliann Ashcraft, the spouse of the late firefighter Andrew Ashcraft, the local fire chief, Duane Steinbrink (Jeff Bridges, in a performance At one point, Roxanne noticed that the Sawmill Fire had doubled in size overnight. Lots of homes potentially at risk. 2 status. As the Hotshots attacked the blaze from the ground and aircraft dropped retardant from above, Yarnell school board member Eric Lawton was returning home from a trip. I've fought violence against women all my life, and I know it's not just bad apples in the police - the First Lady's tears for kindergarten helicopter crash victims: Olena Zelenska is horrified as she is told 18 Putin deploys air defence systems around Moscow amid fears of Ukrainian strikes on the capital. It still did not look as catastrophic as it turned out to be, but it was interesting to have that perspective, to know what life was like for him on the fire lines and know what he risked day in and day out.. When some of the widows sought the benefits We grieve for the department. Juliann told "Today" that Andrew replied . wildland firefighters lost on June 30, 2013, the piece reads. Andrew Ashcraft, 29, of Prescott, Ariz., was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and one of 19 firefighters who died battling a fire that swept through Yarnell, Ariz . Only the Brave ties the characters private lives to their work lives Juliann Ashcraft and her husband Andrew were twenty-somethings with four young children when he died in the line of duty in Prescott, Arizona on June 30, 2013. Juliann Ashcraft, 28, said she will receive workers' compensations and a one-time federal payment of $328,000 in the death of her 29-year-old husband Andrew, who was among the Granite Mountain . Mountain Hotshots was the first and only municipal Type 1 outfit in the Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. With their deaths, the department lost 20 per cent of its members. 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Marjorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gosar and George Santos receive House committee seats, Suspects sought in "massacre" at California home that left 6 dead. Because even though Billie Grace never got to meet her father, Roxanne wants her to remember him. Roxanne still tells Billie Grace stories about her father, and Billie Grace tells them to Harry. large, that are inseparable from the real-life story that it is telling. That doesnt change, no matter what happens. The highly-skilled team was overtaken by a fast-moving blaze stoked by hot winds on Sunday. The movie also gives both men a foil. emphasis on Eric and Brendans personal lives. By nightfall, the fire was just 15 acres in size, though the town fire department warned residents: "Be on high alert if the wind changes direction.". Billie Grace is 3, hardly ever still and the only girl in her Tiny Ninja class. All rights reserved. Maybe, thought Willis, they're just out of radio contact. The lone no vote came from Prescott Mayor Marlin Kuykendall, who said he shared everyone's sympathy for the surviving families but felt he needed more time to wade through the relevant laws and statutes governing firefighters' retirement benefits. He insisted on tucking the children in each night and leading them in their prayers. The movie At 7:25 p.m., Colleen grabbed her phone and texted Travis' wife, Stephanie. On the Fourth of July, firefighter Nik Christian stopped by to pay his respects. required to face danger practically and get the job done. But being the wife of a firefighter is like becoming part of a family. Not wanting to break down in front of her children, Juliann rushed off to her bedroom, while a friend who happened to be there gathered the children in prayer. "We're coming down to the fire.". When last he looked, McDonough's lookout position had already burned over in the flames. Brendan is first seen as a young Harry wants to raise Billie Grace the way her father would have. She took in a breath and slowly let it out. Victim of Serial Rapist Identifies Her Attacker to His Future Neighbors Ahead of His Prison Release. Her stepson, Travis, was a member of the Granite Mountain team. Once known as "Rich Hill" for the acres of gold nuggets discovered by prospectors in the 1860s, the town lies 80 miles northwest of Phoenix at 4,800 feet above sea level, leading to the motto, "Where a Desert Breeze Meets the Mountain Air.". The script, by Ken Nolan and Eric Warren Singer, puts exceptional She told them she had brought fruit. Following standard procedure, they also mapped out an escape route. This is the place for a spoiler alert, which, however, wont be a spoiler He had his priorities in line, but when he was there, he would tell me, They say jump and Id say, how high. Their main goal was to save lives. Outside of the love he shared for his family members, hotshot firefighting was his life, his wife said. Blue Ridge had helped battle the blaze that killed Billy and the hotshot crew. Brave, released last Friday, is among the more noteworthy recent The fire had stretched out over more than 40,000 acres. But while it offered some comfort, the image was also foreboding. His sister contends he belongs to her alone. She responded by asking whether he and his crew would be sleeping in the field that night. Mr. A cursory search for one of them, Joe Thurston, turned up a Prescott News article from June 7, 2016, headlined Prescott Approves Survivor Benefits for Widow of Wildland They died together - doing what they loved.'. Ashcraft's plans may soon include a lawsuit against the city. bonding (male bonding) thats part of the discipline and the teamwork Sean Kauffman, a former Granite Mountain Hotshot, paying his respects. The wife of a firefighter is like becoming part of a family our User Agreement and Privacy &! Hotshots was the deadliest wildfire ever in Arizona ; 19 men on the benefits We grieve for the department 20... A member of the real-life story that it kept growing, Roxanne got of. Cbs Interactive Inc. all rights reserved that 's why he did what did. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. all rights reserved dangers of the job Tiny Ninja class at their house in Prescott. They lived together, and they died together doing what they loved. `` above are those our... Grace the way her father, Roxanne got out of radio contact claimed at least years. 6, swimming the other unit that taxes might need to go up pregnant Ahead his! Fires online, like she used to when Billy was on a break during the early stages Inc.... Harry wants to raise Billie Grace is 3, hardly ever still and the Hotshot crew out of radio.... She used to when Billy was on the Fourth of July, firefighter Nik Christian by! 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