NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 11

Josh Brolin leads the doomed Granite
Mountain Hotshots in Only the Brave.

C U LT U R E

TOO SOON?

HOLLYWOOD TAKES ON THE DEADLY YARNELL HILL FIRE,
WHICH KILLED 19 WILDLAND FIREFIGHTERS IN 2013
By Angelo Verzoni

n June 2013, it had been
more than four decades
since the hills flanking
the western edge of Yarnell, Arizona, had burned.
When thunderstorms descended on the
dusty town of less than 1,000 people, a
lightning strike sparked a fire in the dry,
overgrown chaparral. Like many wildfires, it began inconspicuously, but soon,
fed by high winds, the fire picked up
speed and began acting unpredictably.
A crew of wildland firefighters with
the nearby Prescott Fire Department,
the Granite Mountain Hotshots, were
called in, and fought the blaze for two
days before it surrounded them, leaving
no way out. Nineteen of the 20 hotshots
died, making it the fifth-deadliest event
for firefighters worldwide since 9/11.
This fall, their story comes to the
big screen, reimagined as a Hollywood

RICHARD FOREMAN/SONY PICTURES

I

blockbuster titled Only the Brave and
starring Josh Brolin, Jennifer Connelly,
Jeff Bridges, and Miles Teller, and
directed by Joseph Kosinski (TRON:
Legacy, Oblivion). The film is based in
large part on a 2013 GQ magazine article
that recounts in painstaking detail the
hotshots' experience battling the fire,
mostly through the eyes of Brendan
"Donut" McDonough, the only Granite
Mountain Hotshot to survive the event.
According to Brian Henington, a
veteran wildland firefighter who served
as the film's safety advisor, the movie is
one of the most accurate depictions of
wildland firefighting captured on film.
"I'm hoping firefighters are going to see
this and say, 'This is a very technically
sound movie,'" he told NFPA Journal.
Henington has been a wildland firefighter for 23 years, and has taught
college-level fire science for 16 years.

He works in New Mexico, where much
of the movie was filmed. "There are
going to be some things that are 'Hollywood,' for sure, but when you see the
actors' gear, their personal protective
equipment, the way they carry themselves, that's 100 percent how we do it."
The actors prepped for their hotshot
roles in part by taking a 40-hour introductory course on wildland firefighting.
Henington said he was impressed by
their ability to thrive in the course,
specifically praising Brolin, who plays
Granite Mountain Hotshot Superintendent Eric Marsh. "I was amazed at how
tough he is," Henington said. "I was
amazed at how much he had studied
and learned fire behavior. He's got a
natural leadership style."
Despite the actors' chops, it's the
fire itself that steals the show in Only
the Brave, Henington said. Most of the
shots of flames eating through chaparral
weren't computer-generated, he said,
but were captured during prescribed
burns that took place in New Mexico.
Not everyone is thrilled about the
film. After the first trailer hit the Web,
some questioned whether the movie
was being released too soon. "If you
were here when those young guys from
Prescott were lost, it is impossible to
look at a movie about them as a movie,"
wrote EJ Montini, a columnist for The
Arizona Republic. "And now, to say

Only the Brave

Columbia Pictures
Directed by Joseph Kosinski
Starring Josh Brolin, Jeff Bridges,
Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly
Opens October 20
something about the trailer like, 'It
looks good' or 'It looks entertaining'
or 'It looks authentic' or ... anything
... seems only to diminish the risk and
the sacrifice and the sorrow of the
event, which in the minds and hearts
of so many who were here during those
awful days is still fresh."
An online documentary series on the
Granite Mountain Hotshots, Through
the Fire, is also slated to come out in
October as part of Condé Nast Entertainment's digital video network.
N F PA . O R G / J O U R N A L * NFPA JOURNAL

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - September/October 2017
