YARNELL, Ariz. — The view from Linda Ma's home in Yarnell is spectacular. Wide open spaces, massive boulders, and a perfect view of the ridge that the deadly Yarnell Hill Fire crested 10 years ago.
But when it started, it was small and headed away from Ma's home. Nothing to get worked up about.
"We saw the fire up the hill and then we go 'oh yeah, you know,' and we just watched it for a while not thinking about it," she said. "I started packing my stuff just in case."
And for nearby homeowner Jerry Florman, "everybody said it's nothing."
But she was having second thoughts.
"We had a very dear friend who contacted us and said that it was unpredictable, and probably we should head back because we were camping," Florman explained. "We filled the cars and we filled the RV back up, and then we took our drive up onto the hill."
Se saw the situation get serious.
"We were up there on the hill when the fire changed."
And she wasn't alone. Ma called the view from her living room "the IMAX theater," and she had a front-row seat to the fire's advance.
"I saw flames just beyond the rocks here," Ma said. "That's pretty close, so I started screaming, telling everybody 'we gotta go, let's go,' you know because it was right there."
Florman's home -- full of her art, books, and memories -- had to be left behind.
"I had many plants cactus that had been my dad's and you know I just walked through the house and I said I have to I had to tell them all goodbye and all that was gone precious mementos and all everything had to be I just had to say goodbye," Florman said. "And a friend that was on the mountain watching said that our house burned very quickly after that."
She said that the fire moved like it was a living creature, swallowing up some houses, but not others.
"I like to describe it as an octopus -- the arms of an octopus. It just hit this house but not that one, and that house but not that one."
The fire took 127 structures, including both Florman and Ma's homes. When the evacuation was lifted, they came back to sift through what was left. Their homes were flattened, twisted, and charred. Burnt ceramic, salt and pepper shakers; a random assortment was all that remained in the ash.
But even if the buildings were lost, Florman and Ma's love for Yarnell survived. Ma rebuilt her home in the same place, with the same view of the valley that she adored.
>> Download the 12News app for the latest local breaking news straight to your phone.
"This is the same spot," she told 12News. "It was a small, two-bedroom house and it just burned to the ground.
Florman and her family didn't rebuild but instead bought a surviving house down the road.
"We had built numerous houses in our married life and we knew what it meant. We just decided we didn't want to have to do that again," Florman said.
It's been 10 years since the fire and Florman's home is filled with new art, new memories, and new books -- including books about the fire that changed their lives, and took 19 others.
Even a decade later, that day is hard to shake.
"I don't think about it every day," Florman said. "I did a lot of work emotionally and psychologically to move on. I don't grieve for the house any longer. I don't grieve for the things any longer. I have many wonderful memories. But I do grieve for the 19 men."
Homes can be rebuilt, but the loss of the Granite Mountain Hotshots will always be felt. But for so many others, Yarnell's endurance is what makes it others.
"The beauty of the place is here," Ma said. "It was here before, and it's here now too."
ARIZONA WILDFIRE SEASON
Get the latest information on how to stay safe and protect your home during wildfire season in Arizona.