No. 23 seed shocks defending champ Serena Williams at Wimbledon Sports, B-1
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Ultimatum in Egypt The military gives President Mohammed Morsi 48 hours to meet protesters’ demands before it will intervene. PAgE A-5
Company digs for opinions on mine
these valiant individuals, and from what they have done with their program.” Eric Litzenberg, city of Santa Fe fire chief
Unidentified members of the Granite Mountain Interagency Hot Shots pose in a photo provided by the city of Prescott, Ariz. Some of the men pictured were among those killed while working Sunday, says Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo.
Tragedy felt ‘close to home’
Hot Shots killed in Arizona wildfire were role models for local firefighting crews
Operation would search for gold at new location in the Ortiz Mountains By Staci Matlock The New Mexican
An Albuquerque-based company is probing public opinion regarding a proposed gold mine in the Ortiz Mountains, sending out a full-color glossy informational brochure and a survey to Santa Fe city and county residents. Residents in mid-June began receiving the “Continuing a Legacy” brochure for the Ortiz Mine Grant from Santa Fe Gold Corporation, formerly Azco Mining. The brochure says the mine is “setting a new standard for mining” and will be “an opportunity to help our schools and lands.” Gold was last mined in the Ortiz Mountains in the mid-1980s by Consolidated Gold Fields and LAC Minerals using open-pit mining and cyanide heap-leaching. A group of residents in Madrid sued LAC Minerals over contamination from that mine, which was located in a different part of the mountains. Santa Fe Gold claims it will extract minerals using a technology that requires no chemical leaching and is friendlier to the environment. Company CEO W. Pierce Carson referred questions to Tim Leftwich, a contractor and owner of GL Environmental in Las Vegas, N.M. Leftwich said his company is in the very preliminary stages of gathering baseline environmental data on more than a dozen factors — from water to wildlife — to fulfill state mining permit requirements. Leftwich said the brochure was intended simply to start a dialogue with the community and find out
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Pasapick www.pasatiempomagazine.com
santa Fe Bandstand Funktasm with Little Leroy, 6 p.m.; intermission act Azadeh Dance Company, belly dancers; Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band, 7:15 p.m.; on the Plaza, santafebandstand.org, continues through Aug. 23. More events in Calendar, A-2 and Fridays in Pasatiempo
Today Afternoon storms in spots. High 82, low 55.
A photo of one of the 19 Granite Mountain Interagency Hot Shots who was killed Sunday while fighting a wildfire near Yarnell, Ariz., sits Monday at a makeshift memorial outside the crew’s station in Prescott, Ariz., on Monday. JULIE JACOBSON/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
By Staci Matlock
InsIdE
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u Hearts heavy as crews battle New Mexico wildfires. u Deadliest firefighting incidents in the U.S. u Names of the victims. PAgE A-4
The New Mexican
he Granite Mountain Interagency Hot Shots made their mark in New Mexico before 19 of them died fighting a wildfire Sunday south of Prescott, Ariz. The highly trained crew, which was housed at the city of Prescott Fire Department, spent two weeks battling the Thompson Ridge Fire in the Jemez Mountains before leaving New Mexico in mid-June, according to New Mexico State Forestry spokesman Dan Ware. The team was working the fast-moving Yarnell Hill Fire northwest of Phoenix over the weekend when a windstorm apparently sent the blaze back toward the crew too quickly for them to reach safety. They deployed individual protective shelters in a last-ditch effort, but it wasn’t enough to save them. Investigators are still working to determine what happened. The fire has continued to rage, burning more than 8,000 acres and 200 homes in the town of Yarnell by Monday afternoon. Ware said the Granite Mountain team led the way for a new firefighting module. Their specialty was treating and reducing fuels in fire-prone areas where houses mix with forests and grasslands, known as the wildland-urban interface. Originally formed in 2002, the crew was one of the first from a city fire department to train in wildland firefighting. As their training advanced, they became one of about 13 elite Hot Shot crews in Arizona. “Our common bond is our love of hard work and arduous adventure,” says the team’s website.
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Index
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Friends and family attend an emotional memorial service Monday in Prescott, Ariz., honoring the 19 firefighters killed Sunday. CHRIS CARLSON/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
u To learn more about the Granite Mountain crew and how you can help the families of the firefighters who died, go to the team’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/PrescottGraniteMountainHotshots u To learn more about the team, visit www.cityofprescott.net/services/ fire/hotshots.
Portable shelters couldn’t save crew Authorities investigate as mourners unite to honor 19 victims By Felicia Fonseca and Hannah Dreier The Associated Press
PRESCOTT, Ariz. — In a heartbreaking sight, a long line of vans from a coroner’s office carried the bodies of 19 elite firefighters out of the tiny mountain town of Yarnell on Monday, as the winddriven wildfire that claimed the men’s lives burned out of control. About 200 additional fire-
Police notes A-9
Editor: Rob Dean, 986-3033, rdean@sfnewmexican.com Design and headlines: Kristina Dunham, kdunham@sfnewmexican.com
Sports B-1
fighters arrived to the scorching mountains, doubling the number of firefighters battling the blaze, ignited by lightning. Many of them were wildfire specialists like the 19 fatally trapped Sunday — a group of firefighters known as Hot Shots called to face the nation’s fiercest wildfires. With no way out, the Prescottbased crew did what they were trained to do: They unfurled their foil-lined, heat-resistant tarps and rushed to cover themselves. But that last, desperate line of defense couldn’t save them. The deaths of the Granite
Time Out A-8
Local Business C-1
Main office: 983-3303 Late paper: 986-3010
Mountain Interagency Hot Shots marked the nation’s biggest loss of firefighters in a wildfire in 80 years. Only one member of the 20-person crew survived, and that was because he was moving the unit’s truck at the time. Arizona’s governor called it “as dark a day as I can remember.” “I know that it is unbearable for many of you, but it also is unbearable for me. I know the pain that everyone is trying to overcome and deal with today,” said Gov. Jan Brewer, her voice catching several times as she addressed reporters and residents at Prescott High
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Three sections, 28 pages 164th year, No. 183 Publication No. 596-440