Service for Former Mill Creek Hotshot Chris MacKenzie, One of 19 Killed in Arizona, is Saturday

The public memorial service for former Mill Creek hotshot, Tahquitz crewman and Hemet High School grad Chris MacKenzie, who was killed last week with 18 other firefighters in Arizona, is scheduled Saturday at Ramona Bowl Amphitheater.

The service is expected to begin at 6 p.m. July 13 at 27400 Ramona Bowl Road.

MacKenzie was 30 years old when he died with the Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshots, who were overrun June 30 during the Yarnell Hill Fire northwest of Phoenix.

Agencies he worked for in San Bernardino and Riverside counties included the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the California Desert District.

Crew of a National Guard C-130 flew the caskets of MacKenzie and another member of the Granite Mountain Hotshots from Prescott to Los Alamitos on Wednesday. A procession led by the California Highway Patrol escorted MacKenzie's hearse on a route that passed through south Riverside on its way to Miller Jones Mortuary in Hemet. Photos from the procession are at this link.

Another Hemet High grad and member the Granite Mountain Hotshots killed last week in the Yarnell Hill Fire, Billy Warneke, 25, was buried Wednesday July 10 in Marana, Arizona.

At least four other Granite Mountain Hotshots had ties to Southern California.

The remains of Kevin Woyjeck, 21, of Seal Beach, were flown July 10 on the same C-130 that brought MacKenzie's casket to to Los Alamitos.

Other firefighters killed in the Yarnell Hill Fire with SoCal ties include Grant McKee, 21, who grew up in Costa Mesa and attended Newport Harbor High, Sean Misner, 26, of Santa Ynez in Santa Barbara County, and Andrew Ashcraft, 29, who was born in Orange.

June 30 on the Yarnell Hill Fire is believed the deadliest incident for wildland firefighters since the Griffith Park Fire in 1933, when 29 were fatally injured.

To read more about MacKenzie and other Granite Mountain Hotshots, start at this Arizona Republic link: Yarnell Hill Fire Fallen Remembered: Christopher MacKenzie.