What a tragedy . . . nineteen lives, most in their 20's. Our prayers are with their families and friends.

A tragedy for certain. Condolences to the families, friends and all firefighters.

If you haven't read Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean, the author of A River Runs Through It, I encourage you to do so. It is a forensic analysis of the Mann Gulch fire of 1949 that killed 13 U.S. Forest Service Smoke Jumpers.

Having spent weeks fighting a couple of wildland forest fires, including the 3 week 1977 Marble-Cone fire in Big Sur, the largest CA wildfire in recorded history at that time, I can say that they are tremendously unpredictable and unforgiving.

BTW, Hotshot Teams are so called because they are considered the best.

That was a horrible tragedy. They didn't sign up for that. God be with them and their families.

This is a tragedy. They knew the danger and they did sign on for this anyway, which makes their commitment and sacrifice all the more meaningful. Prayers to their friends and family.

We just moved to Prescott from Durango and in the last two weeks have experienced two major fires. The first one was the Doce fire that burned Granite Mtn, and now this one. I can tell you it has shaken this town to its core.

We are very impressed with the cohesiveness of the community and how everyone has come together. Nevertheless, it's going to take a long, long time to reach any level of acceptance.

As a side note, the media reported today that the entire command team that was in place over the weekend has been replaced. The stated reasons are that it cannot be expected to continue to perform given the loss, and that the fire is now large enough and requires sufficient resources to warrant a new and larger command and control operation.

As I understand the situation at the time of the tragedy, the team that was lost was working at the direction of a state led command and not its parent organization, Prescott Fire.

God Bless them.