Were The Bodies Of The Granite Mountain Hotshots Recovered? – Celebrity
Matthew Elliott
Updated on January 18, 2026
The largest remaining question about the Yarnell Hill Fire that killed 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshot crew in 2013 south of Prescott, Arizona, is why the crew left the safety of a previously burned area and hiked through unburned brush where they were overrun by the fire.
Flags fly at a memorial grave site at Pioneer Cemetery in Prescott, Arizona where the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots were honored after all were killed fighting a wildfire
A long-term drought affecting the area contributed to the fire’s rapid spread and erratic behavior, as did temperatures of 101 °F. Only one Granite Mountain Hotshot survived the fire. On June 30, firefighters with the Prescott Fire Department’s interagency called the Granite Mountain Hotshots were overrun and killed by the fire.
Granite Mountain Hotshots Memorial State Park was dedicated in 2016 as a place to remember the 19 fallen members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots. The State Park website details the formation of the Park.
When did the Granite Mountain Hotshots happen?
The Yarnell Hill Fire was a wildfire near Yarnell, Arizona on June 28, 2013. After burning for two days, it overran and …
The Yarnell Hill Fire was a wildfire near Yarnell, Arizona on June 28, 2013. After burning for two days , it overran and killed 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots. Just one of the hotshots on the crew survived.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the community of Yarnell hosted a virtual remembrance event. The Daily Courier reported that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the remembrance event for the lost firefighters in the Yarnell Hill Wildfire would be a bit different this year.
The Yarnell Hill Fire is the sixth-deadliest American firefighter disaster in history and the deadliest wildfire ever in the state of Arizona, and until 2014, the wildfire was the most-publicized event in wildland firefighting history. In 2017, Columbia Pictures released a film adaptation of the Yarnell Hill tragedy in 2017, …
When were the Granite Mountain Hotshots released?
The two state investigations into the deaths of 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots released to the public in 2013 did not include the complete autopsy and toxicology reports of the men who were killed on June 30, 2013 in the Yarnell Hill Fire.
These included Zuppiger, Christopher MacKenzie and the crew’s sole survivor, Brendan McDonough. The hotshots were drinking “at the Whiskey Row Pub, a dive in Prescott’s historic downtown,” according to 2013 story in Outside Magazine.
The presence of alcohol in both blood and vitreous samples is considered to be a possible indication that the alcohol was ingested rather than resulting from decomposition.
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18, 2013 seeking the autopsy records as well as additional information including photographs of the location where the men died in a box canyon at the base of the Weaver Mountains west of Yarnell, AZ. The Republic, however, dropped its claim …
Medical Examiner Mark Shelly did not provide an assessment on why alcohol was present in both samples. The presence of alcohol in the blood of the other 10 hotshots without a corresponding presence of alcohol in vitreous sample is an indication that the alcohol was created after death, according to published studies.
McDonough was working as a lookout in a separate location and was not with the crew when it was trapped by a wall of flames. Statements from an eyewitness who saw the crew on the morning of June 30 while ascending the Weaver Mountains raise questions about the physical condition of the men.
And requests by the media to obtain the autopsy reports, which are typically public records, were rejected by Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk who stated in an August 26, 2013 letter to the media that “absent a court order, these items will not be released.”.
What is Granite Mountain Hotshots?
The Granite Mountain Hotshots, also known as the Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshot Crew, was a tight-knit team of wildland firefighters within the Prescott (Arizona) Fire Department. The crew was originally started in 2002 as a fuels mitigation crew, but transitioned to a hand crew (Type 2 I/A) in 2004, and ultimately to a hotshot crew in 2008.
No one realized that the crew left the black and headed southeast, sometime after 1604. At 1630, thunderstorm outflows reached the southern perimeter of the fire.
The Yarnell Hill was the largest wildland firefighter loss of life since the 1933 Griffith Park Fire in California in which 29 firefighters were killed, surpassing even the line-of-duty deaths at Colorado’s South Canyon Fire in 1994 and Montana’s Mann Gulch Fire in 1949.
The park was officially named “Granite Mountain Hotshots Memorial State Park” – Arizona’s first memorial state park. The Park features a main trail that leads to an Observation Deck …
The hike is approximately 3.5 miles long from the trailhead to the Fatality Site, for a full length of about 7 miles.”. The newest addition to the Park is a bronze sculpture donated by the Wildland Firefighter Guardian Institute. Learn more about the Granite Mountain Hotshots statue.
Mason added that federal officials intended to replace the current fire shelter design following the Yarnell Hill tragedy; however, in that case, with temperatures exceeding 2,200 degrees F with extreme turbulent air conditions, no fire shelter could have protected that crew.
It was primed to burn because of extreme drought, decadent chaparral and above-average cured grass loadings .
When did Granite Mountain become hotshots?
The Granite Mountain Crew Became ‘Hotshots’ in 2008. Via the group’s website. According to the Prescott Fire Department’s website, the “fuels mitigation crew,” a group specializing in the removal of flammable materials from a fires path, was created at the station in 2002.
According to KPNX-TV only one member of the Granite Mountain Hotshots survived this weekends blaze. He was reportedly stationed at a lookout location around one mile away when the rest of his crew became trapped by the spreading fire. The bodies of the 19 firefighters who died have been recovered and removed.
Inter-agency Hotshot Crews are groups that specialize in going into fire areas on foot and removing things from their paths that will help prevent the spread and growth of the fire.
1. They Went into the Blaze This Weekend. The elite crew went into the Yarnell, Arizona, area this weekend to fight the raging 2,000-acre forest fire currently rampaging through central Arizona. The Hotshots set up around the small town of Yarnell, with a population of around 650 and was working to clear easily flammable debris and fuel from …
A New York City firefighter looks for the names of colleagues killed on September 11, 2001 during a first responders wreath-laying ceremony at the National September 11 Memorial in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
All 19 firefighters killed yesterday in an uncontrollable Arizona wildfire were members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots from the Prescott, Arizona Fire Department. The average age of the crew was 27. Governor of Arizona Jan Brewer, above, signed a special declaration allocating more state resources to fighting the Yarnell Hill Fire.
