Wildland Firefighters Monument: Fourteen Crosses on Storm King
Near Boise, Idaho
On the grounds of the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise stands a monument that began with a single disaster. On July sixth, nineteen ninety-four, fourteen wildland firefighters were killed fighting the South Canyon Fire on Storm King Mountain in Colorado. The Wildland Firefighter Foundation, formed to assist fallen fighters and their families, channeled that grief into something permanent.
Volunteers and donors built the monument over several years, and it was dedicated on May twenty-fifth, two thousand. Bronze statues of firefighters anchor the site. A ribbon-shaped walkway honors the ribbon worn by the firefighting community to commemorate the fallen. Plaques line the path, each one a name. The monument stands as the national memorial for every wildland firefighter lost in the line of duty.
