An Inside Look At The Firefighting Hot Shots

From the Denver Post: In his book, "Young Men and Fire," Norman Maclean attempted to convey what a crew experiences in the chaos of a mountain firestorm.
"It is really not possible to see the center of a blowup because the smoke only occasionally lifts," the late Montana author wrote, "and when it does all that can be seen are pieces, pieces of death flying around looking for you—burning cones, branches circling on wings, a log in flight without a propeller." In American culture, the firefighter is almost a mythic being. Immortalized in movies such as "Hellfighters," ''Backdraft" and "Ladder 49," they do things that most people could never conceive of doing. They are, as we see time and again, the first ones into a disaster and the last ones out. It is no different in the wildland firefighting community, where men and women armed with little more than axes, shovels and chain saws face mountainsides engulfed in flames and, somehow, hope to bring that force of nature to heel. "You ask yourself: Why are these people willing to put their lives on the line? For people they don't even know?" retired teacher Sharon Owsley asked last week as she stood on the courthouse square in this town north of Phoenix. "Why do they even do this kind of work that's so highly dangerous? Every day it might not be. But then there's that one day that you may not come home." For 19 members of Prescott's Granite Mountain Hotshots, that day came June 30, when they were overrun while battling a blaze on a ridge in nearby Yarnell. On Tuesday, firefighters from across the nation will join with the men's families, Vice President Joe Biden and other dignitaries to honor the men.
Read more: For firefighters, answer to why is: Someone has to - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_23623931/firefighters-answer-why-is-someone-has#ixzz2YXNT3ZVd
Tuesday will be the memorial service for the 19 firefighters who died in Yarnell, AZ.
As someone who has been in the fire service, it has brought tears to my eyes, first to think about these 19 guys and how they died but also how much respect the fire service and the public has given these 19 firefighters and other firefighters be it Hot Shots, career or volunteer firefighters.