The 19 firefighters killed this week in a rapidly advancing wildfire were battling to save a small housing subdivision and suddenly were encircled by a dense cloud of smoke and flame, according to officials familiar with the investigation.
"The only thing standing between those folks and those homes were these 19 guys up on that ridge," said Jeff Knotek, who retired as a captain with the Prescott Fire Department on Sunday and now serves as a liaison to the family of one of the dead firefighters.
"Unfortunately, the conditions they were in were not survivable," said Knotek, a 27-year veteran of the department who has participated in official briefings on the fire.
The account, confirmed by the Fire Department's official spokesman, provided the first detailed explanation of what happened outside the town of Yarnell on Sunday as the 19 firefighters, members of the Prescott-based Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshot Crew, were overrun by flames rushing through the nearby manzanita and chaparral.
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