We Will Not Forget: Hotshots Hike Storm King Memorial Trail To Honor 14 Firefighters Killed in 1994
GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4) - Twenty-six years ago, 14 firefighters were killed on Storm King Mountain, near Glenwood Springs. To honor the memory of those heroes, about a dozen members of the Craig hotshots crew hiked up the Storm King Memorial Trail on Monday.
The Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center shared photos of the hotshots at the memorial.
A smoke jumper J-55 aircraft also performed a flyby of Storm King Mountain to pay tribute to the fallen firefighters.
On July 6, 1994, the lightning-caused South Canyon Fire raced up a steep hillside.
Twelve firefighters were trapped on a fire line. Two others were found dead on top of a ridge.
Nine of the dead were members of the Prineville Hotshots firefighting team from Oregon.
Today we remember the Prineville Hotshots. On 7-6-94 14 wildland firefighters - 9 from a Hot Shots crew based in Prineville - perished in a flareup of the South Canyon Fire in Colorado. Two years after the tragedy, the Wildland Firefighters Monument was dedicated in Prineville. pic.twitter.com/t5tiWNeCxe
— Oregon Forestry (@ORDeptForestry) July 6, 2020
The South Canyon Fire was the deadliest wildfire in Colorado's recorded history.