Heroes All - The 19 Who Died Remembered and Le Tour (of course)

Yesterday I awakened to the news that nineteen firefighters of an elite group were killed overnight fighting a lightning-caused forest fire in Arizona. The group, "Hot Shots", were air dropped behind the fire lines to help establish firebreaks and to try and begin getting the fire under control. As always, they were equipped with their standard fire-fighting gear including their pods - body-sized bags in which they could protect themselves from burn-over. Unfortunately the pods only protect to 500 degrees F and this fire blazed much hotter than that.

The "Hotshots" from Prescott, Arizona lost their lives in the
Yarnell forest fire about 80 miles northwest of Phoenix, Arizona.

The western US is normally dry, but this year it's been hotter than normal and the rainfall/snowfall was less over the winter, leading to extremely dangerous conditions for wildfires. This fire has now been burning for more than 24 hours and still is considered under zero control. Homes have been lost, and lives - nineteen lives of young men ranging from age 21-44, men who were proud of their profession and willing to put their lives on the line to help save other people and homes. Many of these young men came from fire fighting families - fathers, brothers, uncles involved in the fire fighting profession. They knew the dangers but still had no hesitation about performing their jobs. They left behind grieving families - parents, spouses and children, and a nation shocked by the largest number of fire fighter deaths since September 11, 2001 - the fall of the World Trade Center towers.

The Yarnell forest fire has already burned hundreds of
homes and now has killed 19 fire fighters. Arizona is
a state in the southwestern part of the US, bordering
California, Utah, New Mexico and abutting with Mexico on the south.

If you would be interested in seeing pictures of the individual fire fighters and reading a little bit about many of them, this link will lead to the New York Daily News' story.

Fires this large can create their own sire tornadoes - whirling columns of
superheated air and flame. This photo was taken yesterday at the Yarnell Fire.

I grew up in the western US and I know how devastating forest fires can be and how quickly they can move. It's one of the reasons I hesitate to move back to the places that I love - at least in Minnesota I have a more humid environment and lots - lots of lakes. We have devastating fires here too, but things rarely get as tinder dry as they can get in New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and Colorado.

Today's stage is fairly flat and quite short for the Team Time Trials.

And in Le Tour - today is the Team Time Trial in Nice. The peleton has finally reached mainland France where they will be for the remainder of the race, and it starts on a 15.5 mile course for one of the more exciting team events. It is unlikely that the race would be won at the team time trial, but like all of the early stages - it can't be won, but it can be lost. I'll be catching the race in between errands today but it's a shortened day because of the type of event so all is good.