(Image source from: Wildfire kills 19 firefighters})

In what is being tagged as one of the most deadliest single firefighting tragedy in the last eighty years, Yarnell hill in Arizona  was charred to nothingness as a wild blaze ripped through the forest and the town, scorching  scores of homes and leaving 19 brave firefighters dead.

A congregation of more than 1,000 people gathered at the Prescott campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University on Monday night to pay homage to the perished smoke jumpers who lost their lives while trying to extinguish the blaze.

Aged about 27, the 19 firemen, belonging to the Granite Mountain Hotshots, were engulfed by the wildfire in seconds before they could scurry for their emergency shelter. The 20th member of the team luckily survived as he was moving the truck when the fire engulfed his team.

A slew of firemen gathered in front of the auditorium to pay their last tribute to their valiant comrades.

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The victims of the wildfire wrath included the 25-year-old Billy Warneke, a veteran of the Marine Corps, who joined the fire forces just three months back and was expecting his first child this December.

Other firefighters who lost their lives were Kevin Woyjeck, Chris MacKenzie, Hotshots superintendent Eric Marsh, 22-year-old Wade Parker and father-of-four Andrew Ashcraft.

Image Source: Daily Mail

AW: Suchorita Dutta