The lone survivor of the Yarnell Hill fire in Arizona that killed 19 firefighters has been identified as Brendan McDonough, ABC reports. The 21-year-old firefighter was the only surviving member of the Granite Mountain Hotshot crew, an elite firefighting team trained to fight forest fires on foot. According to officials McDonough served as lookout for the crew as the other members were down below trying to put out the fire.
On Tuesday, a vigil was held for the 19 members who lost their lives. McDonough attended the service and appeared "very distraught" according to reports. He has remained in seclusion with hundreds of friends and family members posting their support on his Facebook page. Wade Ward, a spokesman for the Prescott Fire Department, said in a press conference that the young firefighter was positioned within a mile or two of the rest of the team. He said McDonough "was on a hillside monitoring the situation below." He told ABC that it is "very common" for teams to have a person serve as the lookout to keep an eye on the team and the fire's progression.
He explained that when a team is in this type of situation they usually have "trigger-points" that indicate to them if they need to move to a different location and reevaluate the situation. On Sunday, Ward said that McDonough radioed to the team below letting them know that his own trigger-point was destroyed in the fire and he was relocating to a different area. According to reports he told the team to radio him if they needed to get in contact with him. As he was moving to a different location McDonough reportedly told the team that the winds had suddenly changed and picked up adding that his trigger-point "had been burned over in three minutes," ABC reports. The sudden change in wind speed and direction is why the crew didn't have enough time to escape the fire.
"He was warning them to get out," Ward told ABC. "They had made their plan to get out. They were attempting to reach their safety zone and get back to that point. He [McDonough] was picked up by a Blue Ridge Hotshot supervisor and was evacuated from the area and the crew attempted to get to their safety zone and they just couldn't outrun the fire. It changed that fast."
Ward went on to say that McDonough and the crew did everything they were supposed to do and the whole thing was a tragic accident.
"It's not a good situation to not only be there, but to know that all of your buddies are gone," Ward said. "He did exactly what he's supposed to do and the crew did exactly what they're supposed to do. There's nobody to blame. This is an accident."
McDonough attended the vigil for his team members and friends Tuesday night, thanking all his family and friends for their support on his Facebook page.
