Arizona pauses to remember 19 fallen firefighters on 1-year anniversary of tragedy

In this Tuesday, June 24, 2014 photo, in her first visit to the firehouse in Prescott, Ariz., since her son's death, Colleen Turbyfill, right, Travis Turbyfill's mother, gets a hug from Katie Cornelius, Prescott Fire Department volunteer exhibit curator for the Tribute Fence Preservation Project, after Turbyfill visited the Granite Mountain Hotshots crew vehicle buggy where her son Travis sat before he was killed along with 18 other hotshots in a wildfire almost a year ago. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) (The Associated Press)

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Dennis Bueschel, a volunteer for the Tribute Fence Preservation Project, gets pieces ready for a public showing to mark the upcoming one year anniversary of the deaths of 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots killed fighting an Arizona wildfire on Tuesday, June 24, 2014, in Prescott, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) (The Associated Press)

Old wildfire fire fighting gear once part of a makeshift memorial, are just some of the thousands of artifacts carefully cataloged and saved for the Tribute Fence Preservation Project honoring the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots who were killed nearly a year ago fighting an Arizona wildfire on Tuesday, June 24, 2014, in Prescott, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) (The Associated Press)

PRESCOTT, Ariz. – The 19 men who died during an erratic wildfire are being remembered with a moment of silence and bell-ringing to mark the moment of their deaths exactly one year ago.

Bells chimed 19 times at 4:42 p.m. local time outside a historic courthouse in Prescott, home to the Granite Mountain Hotshots.

Prescott Fire Department Battalion Chief told the crowd that the "small community was forever changed" one year ago. he said, "The unimaginable suddenly had to be imagined."

The tragedy marked the largest loss of life for U.S. firefighters since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and the worst for a wildland fire crew in eight decades.