YARNELL, Ariz. (AP) - A statue honoring 19 members of a firefighting team known as the Granite Mountain Hotshots who died in a 2013 Arizona wildfire has been unveiled near the site where they died.
The statue was dedicated Saturday at a state memorial park established where all but one member of the team died near Yarnell on June 30, 2013.
Matt Glenn of Provo, Utah-based Big Statues says the "Returning the Favor" television show hosted by Mike Rowe commissioned his team to make the bronze sculpture for the Wildland Firefighter Guardian Institute.
The institute will formally turn over the 6-foot, 2-inch statue to the state during a May ceremony at the park located 66 miles (106 kilometers) northwest of Phoenix.
Glenn says the design includes facial features of multiple fallen members of the Hotshots because it wouldn't be proper "to just represent one of the 19."
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