Budget cuts, even for fire, are the wave of the future, unfortunately. Adding to that, the burden of thinning should not fully rely on federal or state governments' shoulders. Land and homeowners need to take responsibility, too. More so than they have in the past.
However, the Granite Mountain 19 should not have died on that fire. Their deaths were totally unnecessary! No house, no patch of timber, and certainly no endangered wildlife habitat is worth firefighters dying over. That #### can burn to the ground. And it can be easily rebuilt. Those 19 lives lost will never be rebuilt.
How many South Canyon, Dude, Mann Gulch, and Yarnell Hill fires will it take for people to realize that their material things, when built in a fire-dependent ecosystem, become part of that ecosystem, and will, at some point more than likely burn? Accept it. And when will land and housing developers start being held partly financially responsible for firefighter deaths on wildland incidents? After all, it was their actions that indirectly caused a need for suppression. And when will we stop trying to "save" portions of wild lands that have a tremendous fire deficit? The effects of Smokey Bear's negative legacy are still churning.
