A volunteer Rockville, Md. firefighter told News4 she is still shaken to the core thinking of the 19 lives lost fighting a fire in Arizona Sunday.
The firefighters were identified Monday afternoon. Many of them were under 30 years of age.
"I cried this morning when I thought about the magnitude of the loss," Peggy Miller said.
For 13 years, Miller has worked as a summertime paramedic with the U.S. Forest Service, providing medical support to hotshot teams, much like the one in Arizona.
"It's exciting. I love the people I work with," Miller said. "That's what makes this loss so hard... we're a big family."
The Granite Mountain Hotshots were featured in an Arizona State University video last year. Although Miller is not on a hotshot team, she does go through similar training and knows the dangers that come with the job.
"The windland fire is a very unpredictable animal," Miller said. "Sometimes it just gets away from you. Unfortunately there are tragic results when it does."
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"We're going to take this, learn from it, and not let something like this happen again."
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