{"id":59495,"date":"2019-02-26T22:17:02","date_gmt":"2019-02-27T03:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=59495"},"modified":"2021-03-18T16:42:55","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T20:42:55","slug":"arizona-hotshots-to-retire-number-19-in-honor-of-granite-mountain-hotshots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2019\/02\/26\/arizona-hotshots-to-retire-number-19-in-honor-of-granite-mountain-hotshots\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona Hotshots to Retire Number 19 in Honor of Granite Mountain Hotshots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Firefighters are some of the bravest members of our society, and the Arizona Hotshots are doing a small part to\u00a0pay tribute to past heroes who selflessly laid down their\u00a0lives. On Sunday, March 3<sup>rd<\/sup>, the Arizona Hotshots will officially retire the number 19 in honor of the 19 firefighters who died while trying to put out the Yarnell Hill Fire.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Arizona Hotshots will retire the number 19 on Sunday to honor the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots who lost their lives on June 30, 2013. No <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/aafhotshots?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@aafhotshots<\/a> player has ever worn the number 19.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Daniel Kurish (@DKurish) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DKurish\/status\/1100212601139662849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 26, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h1>Arizona Hotshots to Retire Number 19, Honor Granite Mountain Hotshots<\/h1>\n<p>On June 30, 2019, a massive fire roared throughout the Arizona landscape. Stretching out over 8,400 acres, the Yarnell Hill Fire was one of the most deadly and dangerous wildfires in recent memory. To combat the flame, 400 firefighters combined forces to eliminate the danger. Tragically, 19 of those heroes never made it out of the fire. The Granite Mountain Hotshots, a group of 20 firefighters, lost all but one of their\u00a0members while trying to combat the massive inferno.<\/p>\n<p>While those heroic firefighters may be gone, their sacrifice will never be forgotten. The State of Arizona has a <a href=\"https:\/\/azstateparks.com\/hotshots\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Memorial State Park<\/a> devoted to said firefighters, and the memories of their sacrifice clearly live on in Arizona\u2019s AAF team. The Hotshots name comes directly from that firefighting unit, and the team clearly intends to continue honoring the lost souls from that tragic day.<\/p>\n<p>While the Hotshots won\u2019t officially retire the number until Sunday, the organization knew the number was off-limits. Nobody has ever worn the number 19, nor has it ever been issued.<\/p>\n<p>The team has more in store than just a number retirement on Sunday. Arizona reportedly plans to have a pregame and postgame ceremony, honoring not only the Granite Mountain Hotshots but also active and deceased firefighters. Full information for the ceremony can be via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oursportscentral.com\/services\/releases\/arizona-hotshots-host-public-safety-salute-and-19-retirement-ceremony-sunday-march-3\/n-5452160\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the teams\u2019 official press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The 2-1 Arizona Hotshots host the 0-3 Atlanta Legends Sunday night at 6:00 local time (8:00 Eastern). NFL Network will broadcast the game.<\/p>\n<p>Main photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"COnTlRZmRK5YyOSEdRlqHw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/174368789\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'COnTlRZmRK5YyOSEdRlqHw',sig:'-skB9W4cIJE7Cxk6W397lgsKuFwkWstQdhWRXLUBzRk=',w:'594px',h:'442px',items:'174368789',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Arizona Hotshots will retire the number 19 in honor of the 19 firefighters who lost their lives battling the Yarnell Hill Fire in 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":59498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4737],"tags":[4626,4633],"class_list":["post-59495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aaf","tag-aaf","tag-arizona-hotshots"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}