The widow of one of the 19 "hotshot" firefighters who died in an Arizona wildfire in late June is being denied lifetime benefits by the city of Prescott, despite what she describes as her dead husband’s full-time commitment to the force, CBS News reports.
Officials in Prescott, Ariz., claim that Juliann Ashcraft’s husband, Andrew, was a seasonal employee and that his family is therefore not entitled to the benefits. But Mrs. Ashcraft says her husband had a full-time weekly workload of 40 hours before his death on June 30. She said she planned to use her husband’s lifetime salaries and health package to support her four children.
"I said to them, ‘My husband was a full-time employee, he went to work full-time for you,’" Mrs. Ashcraft told CBS News. "Their response to me was, ‘Perhaps there was a communication issue in your marriage.’"
The death of Mr. Ashcraft, a Granite Mountain Hot Shots "Rookie Of The Year" in 2011, and his 18 peers garnered national attention at the time of the fire, and thousands attended a memorial service in the tragedy’s aftermath.
The Ashcrafts are one of 13 hotshot families being denied lifetime benefits by the city based on the work being seasonal. However, Mr. Ashcraft was the only one to work 40 hours per week throughout the year, according to CBS.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/firefighter-widow-benefits_n_3714323.html
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