Roswell Daily Record
Hotshots killed in fire mourned
Vol. 122, No. 157 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
INSIDE NEWS
PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) — Nineteen members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, based in Prescott, Ariz., were killed Sunday when a windblown wildfire overcame them north of Phoenix. It was the deadliest single day for U.S. firefighters since Sept. 11. Fourteen of the victims were in their 20s. Here are the stories of some of those who died:
STUDENT LOAN RATES MIGHT DOUBLE
WASHINGTON (AP) — College students taking out new loans for the fall term will see interest rates twice what they were in the spring — unless Congress fulfills its pledge to restore lower rates when it returns after the July 4 holiday. - PAGE B3
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INSIDE SPORTS
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
once holding a plank for 45 minutes, and he was notorious for making up brutal workouts. “The other guys who came in here always said that even though he was in charge, he was always the first one at the fire, the first one in action,” Pereira said.
Chris Mackenzie: ‘Just like his dad’
Prescott High School physical education teacher and coach Lou Beneitone taught many of the Hotshots, and remembered 29-year -old Andrew Ashcraft as a fitnessoriented student. “He had some athletic ability in him and he was a gogetter, too. You could pretty much see, from young freshman all the way, he was going to be physically active.” Ashcraft left behind a wife, Juliann, and four children, the newspaper reported. At Captain Crossfit, a gym near the firehouse where the Hotshots were stationed, Travis Carter was known as the strongest one out of the crew — but also the most humble. “No one could beat him,” trainer Janine Pereira said. “But the thing about him, was he would never brag about it. He would just kill everyone and then go and start helping someone else finish.” Carter, 31, was famous for
Eric Marsh, 43, was an avid mountain biker who grew up in Ashe County, N.C., but became hooked on firefighting while studying biology at Arizona State University, said Leanna Racquer, the ex-wife of his cousin. Marsh lived with Racquer and her then-husband during the winters from 1992 through 1996 in North Carolina, but kept returning to Arizona during fire season. After college, he kept working as a firefighter, eventually
Travis Carter: Strong and humble
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An avid snowboarder, 30year -old Chris MacKenzie grew up in California’s San Jacinto Valley, where he was a 2001 graduate of Hemet High School and a former member of the town’s fire department. He joined the U.S. Forest Service in 2004, then transferred two years ago to the Prescott Fire Department, longtime friend Dav Fulford-Brown told The Riverside Press-Enterprise. MacKenzie, like at least one other member of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, had followed his father into firefighting.
Andrew Ashcraft: An athletic go-getter
July 2, 2013
Eric Marsh: Hooked on firefighting
AP Photo
An unidentified fire chaplain passes flags and flowers commemorating 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots outside of a memorial gathering in Prescott, Ariz., Monday.
landing a full-time job and settling in northern Arizona. He even moved his parents to the state, she said. Marsh was superintendent of the Hotshot crew and the oldest of the 19 who died. Marsh was married but had no children, said his cousin, Scott Marsh of Pisgah Forest, N.C.
Sean Misner: ‘Tremendous heart and desire’
Sean Misner, 26, leaves behind a wife who is seven months pregnant, said Mark Swanitz, principal of Santa Ynez Valley Union High School in Santa Barbara County, where Misner graduated in 2005. Misner played varsity football and also participated in
NM HONORS FALLEN ARIZONA FIREFIGHTERS
SANTA FE (AP) — Gov. Susana Martinez has ordered flags flown at half-staff in honor of the 19 firefighters killed in Arizona. The governor issued an executive order for flags to be lowered from Tuesday through sunset on Friday. Martinez said the firefighter deaths hit close to home. Just weeks ago, the Granite Mountain Hotshots traveled to New Mexico to help battle a fire that charred more than 37 square miles of the Valles Caldera National Preserve. Martinez asks New Mexicans to keep the firefighters’ families in their thoughts and prayers.
the school’s sports medicine program where he wrapped sprained ankles and took care of sidelined athletes. He was slim for a high school football player, but that didn’t stop him from tackling his opponents, recalled retired football coach
Van theft affects handicapped vets NM gets Silver Alert
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SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) — Inbee Park understood the meaning of winning the U.S. Women’s Open much better the second time around. She appreciated, too, the magnitude of this particular accomplishment.
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Ken Gruendyke. “He played with tremendous heart and desire,” Gruendyke said. “He wasn’t the biggest or fastest guy on the team but he played with great emotion and intensity.”
Jessica Palmer Photo
The wheels and tires were stolen from the Southeast New Mexico Veterans Transport Network van. The van is one of six vehicles; however, it is the only one that was built to carry the handicapped. Because of this, the wheels and tires are an odd size and hard to find. The organization has to have it back in service by Wednesday.
Southeastern New Mexico Veterans’ Transportation Network and all those whom they support have become the victims of a crime. Greg Neal, vice president of SENMVTN, reported to
the Legislative and Military Affairs Committee that they found their handicapped van up on blocks Monday morning. The incident was reported to the
police around 5:45 a.m. Monday, although the van was all right when last seen on Saturday.
Fed funding of vet cemetery discussed JESSICA PALMER RECORD STAFF WRITER
The Legislative and Military Affairs Committee of New Mexico met in Roswell, Monday, at the Daniels Leadership Center of the New Mexico Military Institute. New Mexico Department of Veterans’ Services Secretary Timothy Hale
gave an overview of the NMDVS Strategic Plan for 2013/2014, discussing federal funding of veterans’ cemeteries.
According to Hale, with two national cemeteries located in New Mexico, one in Santa Fe and one in Fort Bayard, the state is not eligible for another cemetery. The federal government
recommends that the cemeteries for area veterans be set up to service families within a 75-mile radius. Hale reported some 40,000 vets and their families are covered; however, 131,000 live outside that 75-mile radius. He posed the question: “How can the
See CEMETERY, Page A3
See THEFT, Page A3
See HOTSHOTS, Page A3
SANTA FE (AP) — New Mexico implemented a new statewide Silver Alert warning system Monday to aid in helping find missing people with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. Similar to the Amber Alert program for abducted children, the Silver Alert system provides for emergency distribution of notices when someone 50 years or older is missing and has a cognitive impairment such as Alzheimer’s. Gov. Susana Martinez praised the new law during a news conference in Albuquerque, only hours after an alert by police in the state’s largest city helped in locating a 71-year-old man who had been reported missing by his See ALERT, Page A3
Hearts heavy as blazes are battled by firefighters in NM
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — The burdens of a relentless heat wave and persistent drought started to give way Monday to cooler temperatures and a little bit of rain as hundreds of firefighters tried to rein in a pair of unruly blazes burning through New Mexico’s tinder-dry forests. They toiled on steep mountainsides to bolster fire lines and made preparations to protect structures that might be in the path of the flames, just as they have every day for the last couple of weeks.
Egypt’s military issues a ‘last chance’ 48-hour ultimatum to President Morsi
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s military issued a “last-chance” ultimatum Monday to President Mohammed Morsi, giving him 48 hours to meet the demands of millions of protesters in the streets seeking the ouster of the Islamist leader or the generals will intervene and impose their own plan for the country. The military’s statement, read on state TV, put enormous pressure on Morsi to step down and sent giant crowds opposing the presi-
dent in Cairo and other cities into delirious celebrations of singing, dancing and fireworks. But the ultimatum raised worries on both sides the military could take over outright as it did after the 2011 ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak. It also raised the risk of a backlash from Morsi’s Islamist backers, including his powerful Muslim Brotherhood and hard-liners, some of whom once belonged to armed militant groups.
See NM FIRES, Page A3
Already they vowed to resist what they depicted as a threat of a coup against a legitimately elected president.
Pro-Morsi marches numbering in the several thousands began after nightfall in a string of cities around the country, sparking clashes in some places. An alliance of the Brotherhood and Islamists read a statement at a televised conference calling on people to rally to prevent “any attempt to overturn” Morsi’s election.
AP Photo
An Egyptian protester waves a flag in Tahrir square during a demonstration, Monday.