The Mayor of Hemet released a statement Monday afternoon expressing his community's grief for the deaths of Granite Mountain hotshots Chris MacKenzie and Billy Warneke, who grew up in Hemet and graduated from Hemet High.
MacKenzie and Warneke were among the crew killed Sunday battling a wildfire northwest of Phoenix.
"Sunday's tragic loss of 19 fire fighters in Arizona brings home once again the danger the nation's Public Safety personnel face constantly as they perform their everyday duties," Mayor Robert Youssef said.
"It is with a profound sense of sadness and loss that we learned today that two of the fire fighters, Chris MacKenzie and Billy Warneke, grew up in the Hemet area and graduated from Hemet High School.
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"In fact, Chris MacKenzie was employed by the City for two years in the City's Clean City Youth Program while he was a high school student. Our hearts and prayers to out to the families and loved ones of Chris MacKenzie and Billy Warneke and as well to the families and loved ones of all the fire fighters lost in this terrible tragedy."
To read local reaction reported earlier today click the following link:
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UPDATE: Firefighter Deaths in Arizona Felt by Local Hot Shots, Engine 57 Family
The following was reported by City News Service:
Two of the 19 firefighters killed when a wall of flame overwhelmed them as they battled a wildfire in southern Arizona were Hemet natives, relatives and friends confirmed Monday.
Chris MacKenzie and Billy Warneke, both in their 20s, died Sunday near Yarnell, Ariz., while deployed with fellow firefighters from the Granite Mountain Hotshots.
The crew was among 400 firefighters attempting to get containment lines around a brush fire, now at 8,000 acres, ignited at a business just off state Route 89, a highway that leads north into the mile-high city of Prescott, where the hotshots were based.
MacKenzie and Warneke were both Hemet High School graduates - MacKenzie in 2001, Warneke in 2005.
According to authorities, the hotshots' bodies were found on a hillside by an Arizona Department of Public Safety helicopter crew. Some of the firefighters had taken cover in protective tents they apparently deployed in a last-ditch effort to escape a tide of flames.
There are around 100 hotshot crews based throughout the United States. The crews are considered elite for their skills and ability to work fires under the most rugged and hazardous conditions.
Sunday's loss is believed to be the worst wildland firefighting tragedy since the 1933 Griffith Park Fire in Los Angeles, during which 29 firemen were killed.
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