To honor the memory of the 19 Arizona wildlands firefighters who died in the Yarnell Hill Fire, 10 members of the Ironwood Hotshots will raise funds by running in a special event in Sunday’s Tucson Marathon.
Greg Smith, superintendent of Northwest Fire’s Wildland Division’s Ironwood Hotshots crew, said he worked with some Granite Mountain Hotshots who died in the Prescott-area fire June 30. For him, the run will be about sacrifice to preserve their memories.
“It’s pretty personal,” he said. “We just want something to live on. Unfortunately, people are going to forget the severity of the tragedy. Time heals all wounds. I just want people to remember them. In 25 years, we might have 30 kids who went on to attend college, and that can be their legacy. This is kind of the start to that.”
The hotshots will use the funds to set up a college scholarship fund for Prescott Valley students.
Smith has dubbed the Ironwood Hotshots’ run the Yarnell 19 Run, and will make it 19 miles — one for each victim.
Smith said he and the other participating hotshots have been training for the run for about nine weeks.
He plans on staging more events throughout the year, including a 5K walk — “something a little easier,” Smith quipped — to add to the scholarship fund, and has set up an account at Wells Fargo called “Yarnell 19” to allow others to donate directly.
Smith said he chose a distance run because he wanted to make a personal sacrifice to pay tribute to the fallen hotshots. He has been running as much as 35 miles a week to prepare.
“We’re not professional distance runners,” he said. “I kind of wanted to do something that was going to hurt.”
