This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

Barack Obama sent condolences to the families of 19 firefighters killed in an Arizona wildfire, praising the elite crew as "heroes". It was the deadliest loss of wild land firefighters since 1933.

The firefighters were members of an elite "hotshot" crew, deployed near the small town of Yarnell, Arizona to fight a lightning fire, fuelled by hot temperatures and high winds.

Hotshot teams undergo special training to hike deep into the wilderness during a wildfire, carrying chainsaws to clear brush and other fast-burning material, and stop flames from advancing on people's homes.

The loss of the Prescott, Arizona, crew was a terrible tragedy, the president said.

"They were heroes – highly-skilled professionals who, like so many across our country do every day, selflessly put themselves in harm's way to protect the lives and property of fellow citizens they would never meet," Obama, who is travelling in Africa, said.

Arizona's governor, Jan Brewer, was due to tour the area on Monday and planned to call a special session of the state legislature to seek emergency funding for the victims.

"This is as dark a day as I can remember, with Arizona suffering the truly unimaginable loss of 19 wildland firefighters," she said in a statement. "When a tragedy like this strikes, all we can do is offer our eternal gratitude to the fallen, and prayers for the families and friends left behind. God bless them all."

It was the worst wildland firefighting tragedy in US history since 1933, when 25 men were trapped and killed by a fire in Griffiths Park, Los Angeles.

The firefighters killed on Sunday were members of the elite Granite Mountain hotshot crew who had been deployed to fight the wildfire about 80 miles north-west of Phoenix, when they were overtaken by the fast-moving blaze on Sunday.

Unlike other such elite firefighters – there are about 100 across the country – the Granite Mountain firefighters were a hometown crew, the first in the entire country.

They were founded in 2002 to perform fire prevention work, such as clearing brush around homes, before gradually accumulating the training to rise to elite ranks after fighting a fire in California in 2008.

The Granite Mountain website said members of the elite crew undergo 80 hours of training every year, and have to pass a rigorous fitness test.

"We are devastated. We just lost 19 of the finest people you will ever meet,"the Prescott fire chief, Dan Fraijo told reporters on Sunday night. "We're going through a terrible crisis right now."

Arizona state forestry officials told reporters that the 19 firefighters had evidently deployed their fire shelters. Some of the firefighters were inside the structures but others were found outside.

The shelters are typically deployed as a last resort when firefighters are trapped by a fire.

At least 250 firefighters were battling the fire late Sunday, and the force was expected to increase to 400 today, forest officials said.