US town mourns 19 firefighters MORE than 1,000 people have gathered in a deeply emotional memorial in the Arizona mountain town of Prescott to mourn the deaths of the 19 elite firefighters killed on Sunday. It was the nation's deadliest day for fire crews since September 11, 2001. Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo spoke in a shaky voice at the memorial as he described throwing a picnic a month ago for the department's new recruits and meeting their families. "About five hours ago, I met those same families at an auditorium," he said at the memorial on Tuesday. Those families lost. The Prescott Fire Department lost. The city of Prescott lost. The state of Arizona and the nation lost," he said before receiving a standing ovation as he left the podium. For the 19 killed, violent wind gusts turned a lightning-caused forest fire into a death trap that left no escape. In a desperate attempt at survival, the firefighters - members of a highly skilled Arizona-based Hotshot crew - had unfurled their foil-lined, heat-resistant shelters and rushed to cover themselves on the ground. But the success of the shelters depends on firefighters being in a cleared area away from fuels and not in the direct path of a raging fire. Only one member of the 20-person crew survived, and that was because he was moving the unit's truck at the time. The blaze grew from 80 hectares to about 800 hectares in a matter of hours, and Prescott City Councilman Len Scamardo said the wind and fire made it impossible for the firefighters to flee. "The winds were coming from the southeast, blowing to the west," he said. What limited information we have was there was a gust of wind from the north that blew the fire backed, and trapped them. Authorities are investigating to figure out what exactly went wrong after the wind suddenly changed direction.