Gov. Jan Brewer: Fallen firefighters ‘gave the greatest sacrifice’
Jul 9, 2013, 6:27 PM | Updated: Jul 11, 2013, 5:56 pm
PHOENIX – Ariz. Gov. Jan Brewer attended the “Our Fallen Brothers” memorial service Tuesday for the 19 hotshot firefighters who lost their lives in the Yarnell Hill Fire tragedy.
After the memorial, Brewer spoke with News/Talk 92.3 KTAR’s Mac & Gaydos and shared her impressions on the service.
“Well it was not hard, it gave you pause, because we seem to take our first responders so much for granted and then when you see what has happened out there in the Yarnell Fire and have 19 young men, fathers, and sons and husbands give their lives to protect us, it gives you great pause and makes you very cognizant of what all of these people do for us every day.”
As one of the most touching speeches of the service, Brewer mentioned that it was actually very hard to come up with the right words.
“It’s very, very tough to come up with the words and you know you’ll never come up with the right words.”
Brewer had many difficult tasks during the Yarnell Hill Fire ordeal, but the worst was contacting family members.
“One of the hardest things I had to do was making phone calls to the wives and the mothers and the dads… I thought I wouldn’t get through it.”
Mac asked if there were any plans of legislation or another type of memorial service for the families, to which Brewer responded that right now what the Yarnell Hill Fire families need is support from the community.
“There’s a lot of discussion going on. These people are in great need of financial help and there are a lot of different types of programs.”
Brewer also said that the families were very appreciative of the support and kindness from the Arizona community.
