Emily Barker, Nick Hutcherson and Sydney Watson died on the Snyder Fire near the Colorado-Utah border, just days before this year’s Wildland Firefighter Week of Remembrance began. Two of their fellow firefighters were seriously burned.
The week runs from June 30 through July 6. Crews, foresters, families and agencies stop to honor wildland firefighters killed in the line of duty, with memorial ceremonies and moments of silence. The Southern Group of State Foresters wrote that the news from the Snyder Fire “moved through the wildfire world the way it always does, fast and like a gut punch.”
U.S. Wildland Fire Service Chief Brian Fennessy spoke after the fire. “The loss we experience here is not felt by just one agency,” he said. “It is felt by an entire wildland fire community. We grieve together, we support one another and we continue the mission together.”
Why the dates
The week is bracketed by two disasters. On July 6, 1994, a fire on Storm King Mountain in Colorado killed 14 firefighters. In 2013, a wildfire at Yarnell Hill, Arizona, killed 19 members of the Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshot Crew. A movement to renew the commitment to firefighter safety, and to remember those who fell, grew out of those losses. In 2015 the wildland fire community began observing the week from June 30 to July 6 every year. National Wildland Firefighter Day, on July 2, falls inside it.
Grief that outlasts the week
Crews often stay together for days or weeks. They eat together, sleep in the dirt together and trust each other with their lives, which the foresters’ group says is why a death on the fireline is never contained to a single crew or agency.
Grief does not keep a calendar either. It can hit at once, or wait months and resurface without warning. Firefighters left behind may feel sadness, anger, guilt and questions without satisfying answers. Some throw themselves into work. Wildland fire culture prizes toughness, but the group’s message is that those traits were not built for carrying grief. “Grief isn’t weakness,” it wrote. “It’s proof that someone mattered.”
Support, it says, can be as simple as sitting with someone. A text three months after the funeral, when everyone else has gone back to routine, may matter most. Warning signs include a shift in mood, pulling away from the crew, a shorter temper, trouble focusing and slipping work.
The Southeast Regional Strategy Committee for the Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy built the Employee Emotional & Mental Health Awareness Resource Guide for exactly this. It covers coping after traumatic incidents, self-assessment tools for stress and burnout, counseling and crisis resources, and ways to build peer support so that asking for help is normal.
Ways to take part
Organizers suggest attending a memorial, supporting the family and crew of someone who died, thanking a wildland firefighter, or visiting the Wildland Firefighters Monument in Boise, Idaho. People can also join the conversation online with the hashtags #6MFS and #WeekOfRemembrance.
Sources
- National Wildland Firefighter Week of Remembrance: Grief, Memory and Support for the Wildfire Community – Southern Group of State Foresters
- WILDLAND FIREFIGHTER WEEK OF REMEMBRANCE – July 6, 2026 – National Day Calendar
