Andrew Ashcraft was a member of the Prescott, Arizona, elite firefighting squad known as the
Granite Mountain Hotshots. Sadly, he was one of
19 firefighters killed in an Arizona wildfire on July 2, 2013.
Now his widow, Juliann Aschraft—the mother of his four children—is facing her own challenges as she fights for the lifetime benefits that other family members of the deceased received:
"I want to be able to just be mourning my husband, be supporting my children, be figuring out what our new normal is," she said.
But she's been denied the lifetime benefits she was counting on to raise her four children, the youngest of whom is 18 months old.
The problem? Even though Andrew worked full-time, he wasn't considered full-time:
All 19 hotshot families will receive worker's compensation and a one-time federal payment of $328,000. But the city insists Ashcraft and 12 others were seasonal employees and are therefore not entitled to the lifetime salaries and health benefits—worth millions—given to the six full-time Hotshots.
"I said to them, 'My husband was a full-time employee, he went to work full-time for you,'" she said, "and their response to me was, 'Perhaps there was a communication issue in your marriage.'"
CBS News obtained paperwork that shows Ashcraft did earn a full-time salary. The local firefighters union said of the 13 hotshots denied full benefits, Andrew Ashcraft was the only one to work 40 hours a week year round. City officials declined multiple requests for an interview, but Monday they sent a statement.
Prescott records indicate Andrew was classified as a seasonal employee, but his family insists he worked
year-round full-time hours:
Ashcraft’s brother, T.J. Ashcraft, said his brother worked a full-time schedule for more than a year. He said Andrew routinely put in 60-plus hours a week and had supervisor duties on the crew.
City records show Ashcraft was first hired in 2011, when he worked during the fire season. He rejoined the crew in 2012 and worked as a firefighter, then, over the winter, on a city snow-removal crew. He was not paid for a week in February 2013, then, records show, rejoined the crew.
Andrew Ashcraft's family has taken to
social media to plead their case:
Ashcraft’s mother and brother launched an Internet campaign last week to bring attention to what they described as the city’s “broken promise” to the Ashcraft family.
“The City of Prescott has chosen to deny my son Andrew Ashcraft his full time benefits,” Ashcraft’s mother, Deborah Pfingston, wrote in a Facebook post. “The City promised to care for Andrew’s family and he gave his life trusting in that promise.”
Check below the fold for a video of Juliann Ashcraft telling her story.