The remains of the 19 crewmembers of the Granite Mountain Hotshots will be escorted with full Honor Guard from Phoenix to the Yavapai County Medical Examiner's Office in Prescott on Sunday.

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Fallen Prescott Granite Mountain Hotshots by Prescott Granite Mountain Hotshots Facebook page


According to YarnellFallenFirefighters.com, the remains of the 19 fallen crew members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots will be escorted with full Honor Guard from Phoenix to the Yavapai County Medical Examiner's Office in Prescott on Sunday. The procession is planned to begin at 10 am, and the fallen firefighters will be transported by 19 hearses, each accompanied by motorcycle escorts.


Local businesses showed their support. by Meryl Ann Butler


A memorial Service will be held Tuesday, July 9, at Tim's Toyota Center in Prescott Valley, AZ with seating for 6,000 attendees, and overflow outside with audio and video feeds. There have been indications that President Obama may attend.



The spontaneous shrine stretched around the perimeter of the Hotshot building. by Meryl Ann Butler


The memorial wall in front of the Hotshots building on 6th Street continues to grow.


Prescott College by Meryl Ann Butler


Prescott College provided fabric and drawing materials for a "Compassion in Action: Prayer Flag Project":

"Prayer flags are a custom that started in Tibet over 2000 years ago Traditional prayer flags display prayers, blessings, mantras and powerful symbols. This project is inspired  by the power, grce and simplicity of prayer flags. We invite you to create an intention, a wish, a message of healing and unity, in words or images of your choosing. Our messages are carried by the wind, spreading healing intentions to all beings the wind touches. Each flag will be your unique contribution to the collective healing of Prescott."


Prayer flag by Meryl Ann Butler



A young visitor contemplates the memorial and the prayer flags. by Meryl Ann Butler



Prayer flag by Meryl Ann Butler



Visitors pay their respects. by Meryl Ann Butler


The Incident Information System of the Arizona State Forestry Division (Inciweb) notes in its July 4 update that 8400 acres have been affected by the Yarnell Hill Fire so far, and it is now 45% contained. 596 personell (including 8 crews and 44 engines), and nine helicopters are assigned to the incident. The estimated containment date is Friday July 12th, 2013.

Inciweb also stated, "An operational pause was held in conjunction with the Granite Mountain crew carriers being removed from the fire ground. Prescott Fire, Prescott Interagency Hotshot Crew (IHC), and Ironwood IHC escorted the group from the Yarnell Hill Fire to the City of Prescott."


Fire Depts around the country sent their support. by Meryl Ann Butler


The Doce Fire, just over 6,700 acres, is now 96% contained, with an estimated cost to date of over 7 million dollars. The blaze started on June 18, and the Granite Mountain Hotshot crew participated in it before fighting the Yarnell Hills Fire. 

The Arizona State Forestry Division's update stated that the Yarnell Hill Investigation Team was briefed and visited the site of the fatalities on Tuesday. "The Investigation Team consists of 8--10 investigators from around the country with expertise in several relevant aspects of fire behavior and suppression strategies and tactics.  Their responsibility is to understand what happened as completely as possible and to find lessons to be learned. The team will provide periodic updates but a final report will not be available for some time.  The Arizona Division of Forestry is coordinating the investigation."


Prescott flags at half staff. by Meryl Ann Butler


So far, over $800,000 in donations to the families of the Granite Mountain Hotshots have been raised.  YarnellFallenFirefighters.com said that this will be divided up among the 19 families, but one hopes that the 20th member of the Hotshots, who survived, will get needed support as well.

How to make a donation:

The Prescott Firefighter's Charities is operated by Prescott firefighters, who note that 100% of any and all donations will go to the families of the fallen firefighters, excepting Paypal's 2.3% processing fee.  http://www.prescottffcharities.org/how-you-can-help/

The website of the 100 Club lists ways to donate to the 100 Club Survivors Fund including Paypal, deposits in Credit Union West Banks (account #121734-12 Granite Mountain Hotshots Charity Fund), or by mail to the 100 Club of Arizona, 5033 North 19th Avenue, Suite 123, Phoenix, AZ. 85015. http://www.100club.org/web/100Club


by Meryl Ann Butler

Submitters Website: http://www.merylannbutler.com

Submitters Bio:

Meryl Ann Butler is an artist, author, educator and OpedNews Managing Editor who has been actively engaged in utilizing the arts as stepping-stones toward joy-filled wellbeing for over 25 years. She studied art with Harold Ransom Stevenson in Sea Cliff NY for seven years before opening her own art school. Stevenson had been a student of Norman Rockwell. Her art in a wide variety of media can be seen on her YouTube video, "Visionary Artist Meryl Ann Butler on Creativity and Joy" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcGs2r_66QE A NYC native, her response to 9-11 was to pen an invitation to healing through creativity, entitled, "90-Minute Quilts: 15+ Projects You Can Stitch in an Afternoon" (Krause 2006), which is a bestseller in the craft field. The sequel, MORE 90-Minute Quilts: 20+ Quick and Easy Projects With Triangles and Squares was released in April, 2011. Her popular video, How to Stitch a Quilt in 90 Minutes with Meryl Ann Butler can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrShGOQaJQ8 She has been active in a number of international, arts-related projects as a citizen diplomat, and was arts advisor to Baltimore's CIUSSR (Center for Improving US-Soviet Relations), 1987-89. She made two trips to the former USSR in 1987 and 1988 to speak to artists, craftpeople and fashion designers on the topic of utilizing the arts as a tool for global wellbeing. She created the historical "First US-Soviet Children's Peace Quilt Exchange Project" in 1987-88, which was the first time a reciprocal quilt was given to the US from the former USSR. Her artwork is in collections across the globe. Meryl Ann is a founding member of The Labyrinth Society and has been building labyrinths since 1992. "Creativity and Healing: The Work of Meryl Ann Butler" by Burl Hall is at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Creativity-and-Healing--T-by-Burl-Hall-130414-18.html Burl and Merry Hall interviewed Meryl Ann on their BlogTalk radio show, "Envision This," at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/envision-this/2013/04/11/meryl-ann-butler-art-as-a-medicine-for-the-soul She has written for Opednews since 2004. Archived articles www.opednews.com/author/author1820.html Older archived articles, from before May 2005 are here.