Property owners sought compensation from the state for houses that were destroyed.
Yarnell Hill Fire approaching Yarnell, Arizona, June 30, 2013. Photo by Joy Collura.
The Arizona Supreme Court has refused to hear a case in which property owners sought to obtain compensation from the state for the structures that were destroyed in the Yarnell Hill Fire in June, 2013. A lower court had already ruled that the owners had no legal recourse.
According to media reports, Attorney David Abney had hoped to argue that since Arizona state employees told the residents that they would protect the structures, the government was then obligated and had a duty to perform fire suppression activities in a nonnegligent manner.
“If the people of Yarnell had understood the state was going to do this incredibly incompetently, and the state was going to do a late and improper evacuation notice, they could have taken some measures to protect themselves,” Mr. Abney explained.
“They could have gotten their personal possession out, their pets and livestock out,” he continued. “They could have removed propane tanks that blew up in the fire, they could have removed their excess vehicles.”
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Joy. Typos or errors, report them HERE.
This film can be a learning opportunity for firefighters.
Mike Olbinski spent months putting together these time-lapse videos of storms, mostly in Arizona.
I hope wildland firefighters find this interesting, informative, and see it as a learning tool. Keep in mind that it was a storm with very strong outflow winds that caused the fire behavior leading to the deaths of 19 firefighters in Arizona on June 30, 2013.
The film includes shots of impressive outflow winds — examples are at 2:08 and 4:45. It is rare to see this enormous threat to firefighters so graphically illustrated.
The video and text below are from Mr. Olbinski’s Vimeo page.
Early on this summer when I found myself down by Santa Rosa, AZ watching a gorgeous hail core fall on the stunning desert landscape, and then later that day staring at a haboob with a stacked shelf cloud above it near the border of Mexico, I had a feeling it would be a unique monsoon. It’s funny how every year is different. That’s the beauty of chasing the summer storm season out here in the desert southwest. You never know what’s going to happen or what you might see.
This year I ventured far and wide. Phoenix never saw a good dust storm all summer, but I still was able to capture a few good ones in southwest portions of the state. The cover photo for this film was halfway to Yuma standing in the middle of Interstate 8 watching an ominous wall of dust roll down the highway towards me with lightning flashing behind it. It was an incredible moment.
One bonus this summer was a few successful chases up at the Grand Canyon. Finally. A couple of gorgeous sunsets, rain dumping into the Canyon, lightning at night, Milky Way…it all worked out and I’m stoked for the footage I captured there that made it into this film. I also ventured over into New Mexico twice to chase some wonderful, plains-like structure to end the monsoon this year.
All told I covered about 13,000 miles and chased as far west as Desert Center, CA, as far east as Wilna, NM and as far north as Tonelea, AZ. And two great storms down in Organ Pipe National Monument, which is only about 10 miles from Mexico.
I loved what I saw this year. It felt so unique. I found myself submerged in cacti and desert flora a few times with stunning light and structure. Explored places in New Mexico I hadn’t seen before. Smiled at the gasps of amazement from the crowds at the Canyon when a lightning bolt would strike. Finally discovered that the Santa Rosa area is a hotbed for supercell activity. And while it didn’t make it on time-lapse, I captured a brief tornado over downtown Phoenix!
So…the film. So much effort and energy went into it. I shot over 110,000 frames of time-lapse and likely only half of it ended up in the final cut. The editing has taken me weeks and even right up until Monday evening I was still fixing and tweaking. The music is all custom, thanks to the amazing work of Peter Nanasi. PLEASE check out his website and buy his albums! I love how we work together to develop a track that seems to fit exactly with the clips I capture. I am so incredibly blessed that his work crossed my path.
A quick thank-you to the workshop guests I had this summer. You guys were amazing troopers, staying out to all hours and being around for some awesome storms. In fact, I am not sure that I would have even been on the shelf cloud in the final scene of this film if it hadn’t been for my workshop. Thank you, thank you!
As always though, what made it fun was sharing a lot of it with my kiddos. They made the trip up to the Grand Canyon with me once and it was such a blast of an experience. Asher joined me in New Mexico one day, just he and I, and I got to see his face light up when he captured his first ever lightning strike on video on his little iPad.
To my wife Jina…we’ve come a long, long way since we started this storm chasing journey years ago. It’s not been easy all the time, especially with me being on the road so much between April and October these days. But we’ve slowly figured things out and I’m unbelievably grateful to you for your support and belief in what we’re doing together.
To everyone else…thank you for your continued support of my work. I am constantly blown-away at the kindness that you show to me.
And now…I hope you enjoy this film.
Technical Details:
I used two Canon 5DSR’s along with a Canon 11-24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 135mm and Sigma Art 50mm. Manfrotto tripods. The final product was edited in Lightroom with LR Timelapse, After Effects and Premiere Pro.
Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today sat down with Josh Brolin in Phoenix about a week before the opening of the movie about the Granite Mountain Hotshots, “Only the Brave”. He explained that he and the other actors felt that the subject of the film was very meaningful.
(Originally published at 10:56 p.m. PDT October 11, 2017)
A red carpet premiere of “Only the Brave” occurred October 10 in Phoenix. Actors in the film that appeared included Josh Brolin, James Badge Dale, and Miles Teller. Director Joseph Kosinski also appeared, along with producers Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, Thad Luckinbill, Molly Smith, and Trent Luckinbill.
Many family members associated with the fatalities of the 19 firefighters and others affiliated with the film also were present.
After the red carpet event, the participants viewed the film.
The Director of the film about the Granite Mountain Hotshots just recently completed the final edits and has released the official trailer (above).
Supposedly it tells the story of the 19 firefighters that were entrapped and killed on the Yarnell Hill Fire in Arizona June 30, 2013. One crewmember who was not with the others at the time of the burnover and survived, Brendan McDonough, is listed in the credits as a Creative Consultant.
The images shown here are from the website and the trailer.
The name of the film has changed, from No Exit, to Granite Mountain, and finally to Only The Brave: Based on the true story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots. The release date has been pushed from September to October 20.
A number of books and articles have been written about the tragedy, but the producers say the film is based on an article published in GQ Magazine titled No Exit, by Sean Flynn.
GQ published an article today featuring an interview with the Director, Joseph Kosinski. Here’s an excerpt in which he talks about casting:
..The two roles I cast first were Eric Marsh and Brendan McDonough. Josh Brolin was always at the top of my list. I flew out to Asheville, North Carolina, where he was filming another movie, and sat down with him on a Saturday afternoon. I talked him through the vision I had for this film, and the importance of this story, and he got it instantly. He had actually worked as a volunteer firefighter at one point in his life, and he had lived in Prescott, Arizona, at one point. He felt an instant connection to the material and the story; that got him interested.
Before production began, the director hired two former members of Granite Mountain who put the 20 actors playing the parts of firefighters through a two-week “Hotshot camp”.
Here’s another excerpt from the GQ article about the reaction to the film from the Granite Mountain family members.
I just finished the film two weeks ago, so we’re just starting to show it to the family members now. The reaction so far has been everything I would have hoped and more—which, to me, is almost the most important thing. I believe so wholeheartedly in [the Granite Mountain Hotshots’] story being a heroic one, and one that needs to be told. Of all the opinions on a film, [the family members’ reaction] is one that truly matters to me on the deepest level. And so far, every reaction I’ve gotten from the family members is that we did our job.
On the map of the Burro Fire, above, the red and brown squares on the north and southeast sides indicate new growth Tuesday and Tuesday night. The red line was the perimeter early Tuesday morning. The white line shows where it was early Monday morning.
(Originally published at 10:10 a.m. MDT July 5, 2017)
Firefighters battling the Burro Fire northeast of Tucson, Arizona were also fighting extreme heat again Tuesday. On the southeast side of the fire they successfully kept the fire north of Redington Pass Road and protected ranch buildings in the area.
On the northeast side steep, rugged terrain and a lack of roads means directly confronting the fire will be very difficult, at best. For now they will rely mainly on air resources to slow the fire’s progress in this area. Contingency plans are in place, should fire activity become a threat to infrastructure or other resources.
The Incident Management Team said Wednesday morning the fire had been mapped at 23,238 acres, growth of more than 4,000 acres from the day before.
Resources assigned to the fire include 594 total personal, 14 hand crews, 33 engines, 19 water tenders and 7 helicopters. The number of air tankers varies throughout the day.
Evacuations are still in effect along the Catalina Highway from Mile Marker 0, north including Summerhaven.
The weather forecast for Wednesday at the 4,000-foot level on the Redington Pass Road where firefighters are presently working predicts 102 degrees, 12 percent relative humidity, and northwest winds at 12 mph gusting to 17.
Check out this 57-second video of Fire Behavior Analyst Stewart Turner describing the expected fire activity for Wednesday.
In the video below, I don’t know about a “storm”, but the Burro Fire, like many rapidly spreading intense fires, did create a pyrocumulus cloud (in the left part of the image).
Check this out – the #BurroFire created its own storm yesterday!
Watch the rapidly developing pyrocumulus cloud on the left side. #azwx pic.twitter.com/jmUg9qYKE2
