The sudden, tragic loss of 19 of Arizona’s best firefighters, Prescott’s Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshot Crew, during the Yarnell Hill Fire, on June 30, 2013, painfully reminds us all of the danger and destruction that uncontrolled wildfire can cause. The lightning started fire intensified that afternoon, with strong winds from a nearby thunderstorm, changing direction, and accelerating, overtaking the firefighters, and destroying 134 homes, while burning 8,400 acres.
The national wildland fire community, the State of Arizona, Yavapai County, Prescott, Yarnell, Peoples Valley, and of course, the family and friends of the nineteen lost brothers, sons, and fathers remain heart-broken and devastated. We collectively stand together with the families to create this memorial honoring these elite firefighters, and remembrance of the deep sense of loss, this area has experienced. The Yarnell Hill Fire Memorial Park® will be a somber, tranquil setting, which will endure as a place to reflect upon and remember this unprecedented loss of nineteen heroes and to also acknowledge the loss of the homes, the evacuation experience and all those who assisted in fighting the fire.
It will also be a community focal point, and Earth Friendly Building Materials LLC is proud to be selected as the company to provide building material to be used to construct the serpentine privacy wall. EF BlockTM is a hybrid concrete block offering an extremely fire resistant wall (4 hours at 2,300F), significant energy efficiency (R-40 insulation value), and a wonderful do-it-yourself block system. Visit www.efblock.com to learn more about the many benefits and see various projects constructed using EF BlockTM – from homes and patio features like bar-b-ques and benches, to commercial projects.
The Yarnell Hill Recovery Group, Inc., and Earth Friendly Building Materials invite you to a workshop to be held Friday April 15th and Saturday April 16th starting at 10:00 a.m. Come and learn to work with EF Block TM in a participative hands-on session, then stay, and put your new skills to practice, by helping to construct part of the Memorial Park. Learn more. You will not be disappointed.
Why EF Block TM
The EF Block building material was introduced to Yarnell by Dan Chouinard twenty years ago, working with local resident Phil Lobeck, to add a room to his home in Yarnell. The Lobeck home was one of the 134 ravaged by the Yarnell Hill Fire, but contents of that addition survived, while those in the traditional concrete block portion were lost in the fire.
EFBM would like the Yarnell and surrounding community to be better educated about this extraordinary building system with great value, when constructing in any wildfire urban-interface zone. It is next generation concrete block, offering the same strength and durability, but far exceeding the thermal mass performance, sound barrier, energy savings, pest resistance, and fire resistance than concrete block. And it goes up so much faster than CMU, without the need to be or hire a crew of masons – it is great for the small contractor, handyman, and DIY to construct just about anything.
EF Block TM is manufactured by Earth Friendly Building Materials LLC in Tempe, AZ and Kingman, AZ. With over 45 years of experience constructing over 9,000 projects in Arizona, the Chouinards are great team members. Dan & Sue Ellen Chouinard, Principals may be contacted for more information at (480) 830-5393 or by email at dan1@efbm.com or sue@efbm.com
“Earth Friendly Building Materials LLC, Sue Ellen, and I are proud to be a part of this noble project!” – Dan Chouinard