‘We Cannot Tell You Our Grief,' Fallen Firefighter's Family Says

The family of a Seal Beach native killed while battling an Arizona wildfire said their sorrow was beyond description Tuesday.

“We cannot tell you our grief," said Anna Woyjeck, the mother of 21-year-old Kevin Woyjeck who died in the Yarnell, Arizona fire Sunday.  “We are so sorry for everybody who loved Kevin.”

Woyjeck, 21, had called his parents about 6:45 a.m. the day he died in a wildfire near Yarnell, Ariz.. He promised to call later that night, but they never heard from him.

The parents and sister of Kevin Woyjeck, talked about how much they will miss him. Woyjeck's sister, Maddie, said her brother “was so outgoing” and that she will “miss his smile, his laugh.”

Woyjeck's father, Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Joe Woyjeck, wore his son's Anaheim Angel's cap.

Officials with LA County fire said Kevin Woyjeck had gone into firefighting to follow in his father’s footsteps. Kevin was a 2010 Los Alamitos High School graduate.  

Anna Woyjeck said that when her son was a boy he once asked her what he could do to help a homeless man. When she said she did not know, he decided to bring the man a blanket.

The 19 firefighters killed Sunday were part of the Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshot Crew, an elite wildland firefighting unit. The wildfire was the deadliest in the United States since the 1933 Griffith Park Fire in which 29 firefighters died.

--City News Service

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