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CEDAR CITY — The mother of a Cedar City man who died while fighting a wildfire in Arizona six years ago was disheartened when a commemorative flag was stolen from her front yard last month.
But Gayemarie Ekker’s spirits were lifted Tuesday as members of the Cedar City Hotshots wildland firefighting crew visited her home and presented her with new replacement flags.
The new flags are a U.S. flag and a special red-and-yellow flag honoring the 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots who were killed while fighting a wildfire near Yarnell, Arizona, on June 30, 2013. Ekker’s son Joe Thurston died in that incident.
Tuesday afternoon, the new flags fluttered in the breeze atop a shiny new flagpole in the yard of Ekker and her partner Larry Gooding. Ekker told Cedar City News they never did find out who took the first set of flags the weekend after the Fourth of July or why.
Still, Ekker said she’s grateful for the outpouring of support she’s received since word got out about the theft.
“I love Cedar City,” she said. “It’s a wonderful community, a close-knit community. And there’s no other family like the wildland firefighter family. They’re just the best.”
