PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) - Arizona officials have agreed to sell two buggies used by 19 fallen firefighters to the Los Angeles County Fire Museum.
Prescott City Council voted to sell the buggies used by the Granite Mountain Hotshots for $25,000 Tuesday, the Daily Courier reported (https://bit.ly/2qgFcue). The buggies are a memento of the 19 firefighters that died in the 2013 Yarnell Hill Fire.
The Los Angeles fire museum was the sole bidder for buggies after the city put them on sale as surplus property, according to the report. City officials hope to use the money to pay down the city’s more than $78 million in unfunded liabilities with the Public Safety Personnel Retirement System.
The museum, located in Bellflower, California, has agreed to keep one of the vehicles in Prescott.
Joe Woyjeck, the father of one of the Hotshots firefighters and a fire museum board member, said the museum would work on keeping the Prescott buggy in the same condition as it was on the Hotshots’ final days.
“These buggies are very sacred,” he said.
City officials and the families of the firefighters have said they would like to open a local wildland fire museum to honor the group in the future.
“It’s time for us to work on building that museum,” said City Council Member Jean Wilcox.
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Information from: The Daily Courier, https://www.dcourier.com
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