Editor's Note -- There will be a ceremony to remember the Granite Mountain Hotshots at 3 p.m. (MST) in Prescott, AZ
Ten years ago today -- June 30, 2013 -- 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots perished in the Yarnell Hill Fire in Arizona.
In the years since, there have been memorials dedicated, monuments erected, a Hollywood movie released and multiple studies conducted.
But what remains basically the same are the fire shelters carried by wildland firefighters across the country.
Advocates including a former smoke jumper told KTVK a new design, one that incorporates the latest technology and materials, is long overdue.
USFS officials say they've made improvements to the shelters since 2013. But, Jason Ramos, a retired smoke jumper and author of a book by the same name, isn't convinced.
He said wildland firefighters would be better off not carrying the shelters at all. “If firefighters knew exactly what they’re capable of doing, they would make different decisions on operations."
James Roth, an aeronautical engineer, worked for years on a new fire shelter in the mid-1990s.
“What really got me started in working with wildland firefighters was the day that I lost my brother,” Roth said, referring to Roger Roth, one of 14 smoke jumpers killed in the South Canyon Fire in Colorado in 1994.
“Back in 1994, they were using a fire shelter that was mis-designed. We did come up with a better fire shelter than what my brother had. And we got in a competition with the U.S. Forest Service lab. In the end, they decided to choose their own fire shelter tent,” he said.
The USFS said in a statement after the process: “The review team then tested hundreds of alternative shelters of various materials, weights, and shapes. None of the tested shelters showed better results and met the desires of the firefighters, so it was decided to continue the use of the M-2002 Fire Shelter.”
The USFS-designed shelter, -- the M-2002 -- was what the Granite Mountain Hotshots deployed on their final mission.
“They all had the new fire shelter. But it still didn’t save them,” Roth pointed out.
He will not sit idly by. “We need a piece of equipment that’s going to be bullet-proof in any wildland fire burn over. There’s new high-temperature materials coming out now in the defense area that I think we could use for a better fire shelter."
The materials Roth came up with are used as fire shields and fire curtains on fire trucks and other machinery used in fighting wildfires. He says 21 people have contacted him to say his fire curtain saved their lives.
The Granite Mountain Hotshots who answered their final alarm were Andrew Ashcraft, 29, Robert Caldwell, 23, Travis Carter, 31, Dustin Deford, 24, Christopher MacKenzie, 30, Eric Marsh, 43, Grant McKee, 21, Sean Misner, 26, Scott Norris, 28, Wade Parker, 22, John Percin Jr., 24, Anthony Rose, 23, Jesse Steed, 36, Joe Thurston, 32, Travis Turbyfill, 27, William Warneke, 25, Clayton Whitted, 28, Kevin Woyjeck, 21 and Garret Zuppiger, 27.
