MFD crew to attend service for fallen firefighters

The Maricopa Fire Department will send one truck and its crew Tuesday morning to take part in the memorial service for the 19 hotshot firefighters who died fighting the Yarnell Hill Fire on June 30.

The memorial service will be held at Tim’s Toyota Center arena in Prescott at 11 a.m. Fire crews from around the country are participating in the service. The firefighters who died were part of the Granite Mountain Hotshots crew from the Prescott Fire Department.

It was the second biggest loss life for fire crews in a single incident since the 9/11 attacks, when 343 New York City firefighters died.

Vice President Joe Biden is scheduled to be at the memorial and members of hotshot crews from around the nation will also be in attendance.

Capt. Albert Bandin, MFD’s wildland coordinator, will lead the truck with other wildland firefighters John Campanaro and Anthony Luna.

“Wildland” is the term used to denote a firefighter who is trained and willing to fight wildfires.

Bandin said the typical memorial procedure is to have all of the fire trucks lined up near the procession while firefighters stand at attention either in front of his or her truck or the opposite side of the road.

“We worked with (the firefighters killed) before on the Thompson Ridge Fire,” Bandin said. “We joked around about sitting at the VIP table that we just made up. We ate with them nightly. They were a good group of guys.”