At least 19 firefighters have been killed while battling a fast-moving wildfire in arizona in the united states, in the deadliest incident of its kind in the u.s in decades. The firefighters died while racing to contain the wildfire north of phoenix. The deadly blaze came amid baking temperatures and dry conditions across the us southwest, with records broken over the weekend in Arizona and California, and follows an already deadly wildfire season across the region. President Barack Obama paid tribute to those who lost their lives, in a statement issued while traveling in south Africa. Record and near-record temperatures left much of the us southwest sweltering over the weekend, with death valley in California equaling the hottest ever June temperature in the united states, at 128 degrees.