Two of the 19 firefighters who lost their lives in the Yarnell Hill fire were former Marines. Both William Warneke, 25, and Travis Turbyfill, 27, were Marine Corps veterans.
The Press-Enterprise reports Warneke, known as "Billy," grew up in the Southern California town of Hemet. He joined the Marine Corps and served with the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines at Camp Pendleton.
Warneke served four years in the Corps, and was deployed to Iraq during that time.
His wife, Roxanne, is expecting the couple's first child in December.
Travis Turbyfill had also served in the Marine Corps. Janine Pereira, a trainer at the Arizona gym where Turbyfill worked out, told the New York Daily News:
“He’d wear these tight shorts . . . just to be goofy. He was in the Marine Corps and he was a Hotshot, so he could wear those and no one would bug him.”
Another trainer at the gym, Tony Burris, reminisced to the Epoch Times about the close relationship Turbyfill had with his two young daughters:
"He’s this big, huge Marine, Hotshot guy, and he has two little girls, reddish, blonde curly hair, and they just loved their dad.”
In addition to his two daughters, Turbyfill is also survived by his wife.
