Two Hemet men were among 19 elite firefighters who died battling an out-of-control wildfire in Arizona Sunday.
Chris MacKenzie, 30, was one of the Granite Mountain Hotshots crew headquartered in Prescott, Ariz. that was trapped by a lightning-sparked fire near Yarnell, a small community about 85 miles northwest of Phoenix.
The bodies of the firefighters were transported Monday by medical examiner vans from the mountain on which they died. Among those who died were Anthony Rose, 23; Eric Marsh, 43; Robert Caldwell, 23; Clayton Whitted , 28; Dustin Deford, 24; Sean Misner, 26; Garret Zuppiger, 27; Travis Carter, 31; Grant McKee, 21; Travis Turbyfill, 27; Jesse Steed, 36; Wade Parker, 22; Joe Thurston, 32; John Percin, 24; Scott Norris, 28; Andrew Ashcraft, 29 and Billy Warneke, 25.
Warneke was also from Hemet. He and his wife, Roxanne, were expecting their first child in December, his grandmother, Nancy Warneke, told The Riverside Press-Enterprise.
He was a four-year Marine Corps veteran who served a tour in Iraq and had joined the hotshot crew in April, buying a property in Prescott, near where his sister lived, the newspaper reported.
Chris MacKenzie's uncle confirmed his death in an interview with NBC4.
Michael MacKenzie, a former Moreno Valley Fire Department captain, confirmed that he had been informed of his son's death.
"I can't talk about it," he told the Associated Press.
It was unclear exactly how the firefighters became trapped. The firefighters broke out their emergency shelters and tried to take cover on the ground under the heat-resistant fabric.
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Southwest incident team leader Clay Templin told the Associated Press that the crew and its commanders were following safety protocols, and it appears the fire's erratic nature simply overwhelmed them.
Only one member of the elite firefighting team survived, and that was because he was moving a fire truck at the time, authorities said.
Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo said Monday that an investigation would be launched into the situation surrounding the deaths.
"We will be able to take that terrible tragedy and be able to build on that as far as safety, lessons learned," Fraijo said.
MacKenzie was a 2001 Hemet High School graduate who had worked with the U.S. Forest Service for 9 years according to his Facebook page. According to his uncle, MacKenzie's father also was a firefighter.
Longtime friend Dav Fulford-Brown, also a former firefighter, feared for the worst as soon as he heard the news of the Arizona firefighters. "I said, `Oh my God, that's Chris' crew.' I started calling him and calling him and got no answer," he told The Press-Enterprise. MacKenzie, he said,
"lived life to the fullest ... and was fighting fire just like his dad."
"He was finishing his credentials to get promoted and loved the people. It's an insane tragedy.
As the identities were released, friends and family came forward to talk of those killed and their service.
Kevin Woyjeck, the son of Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Joe Woyjeck, was also killed according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
Woyjeck, 21, started out as a Fire Explorer, a training mentorship program, and worked as an emergency medical technician.
"He was doing everything he could to become a professional firefighter -- he had an extreme work ethic," said Keith Mora, LA County fire inspector. "He was a great, great kid. I say kid, but he was a young man at 21 years old."
His family still lives in Seal Beach.
The deaths of MacKenzie, Woyjeck and 17 others has plunged the town of Prescott into a dark sadness.
A makeshift memorial of flower bouquets and American flags formed at the Prescott fire station where the crew was based.
Prescott resident Keith Gustafson showed up and placed 19 water bottles in the shape of a heart according to the Associated Press.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer called the loss of the elite team "unbearable" and told the families, “We can never fully repay the sacrifices made by your loved ones.”
On Monday, she signed a declaration to dedicate additional state resources to fight the fire.
At the time of the firefighters' deaths, winds grew so powerful they caused the fire to grow from 200 acres to about 2,000 in a matter of hours.
The fire destroyed at least 200 homes and burned more than 13 square miles.
