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Tom Craven	Karen FitzPatrick	Jessica Johnson	Devin Weaver
Photos Courtesy King5.com

WINTHROP, Wash. (AP) -- An investigation into the deaths of four young firefighters has found no evidence that inexperience was to blame.

Instead, there was simply no time for the firefighters to escape the inferno, a Forest Service official said Monday.

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Fourteen firefighters were trapped July 10 when a wildfire exploded from 25 to 2,500 acres in north-central Washington in less than three hours. The blaze continued to burn Monday.

The four victims were among six firefighters who set up emergency shelters in rocks above a road. Two survived, though one remained hospitalized Monday with severe burns to his hands.

Rock fields and roads are considered good shelter areas for firefighters unable to reach safety, said Jim Furnish, a deputy Forest Service chief leading the investigation.

The four -- Tom L. Craven, 30; Devin A. Weaver, 21; Jessica L. Johnson, 19; and Karen L. FitzPatrick, 18 -- died after inhaling air too hot to breathe.

Months of drought after two dry years created a wealth of dry fuel that enabled the fire to create its own strong winds, Furnish told a news conference.

Asked what it was like as the fire roared through, he said: ``It is beyond your imagination.''

Memorial services were held Monday for Weaver, who had planned to study electrical engineering at the University of Washington this fall, and Johnson, a junior at Central Washington University. Craven was buried Saturday; services were planned Tuesday for FitzPatrick.

``Devin was a doer, not a talker,'' the Rev. Steve Barker told 500 mourners at Holy Family Catholic Church in Winthrop.

``He loved to hunt with his bow'' Barker said, and liked to camp year-round. Even in January, ``he was probably out building an igloo,'' the minister said.

Also Monday, crews moved to the northwestern flank of the blaze, blamed on an abandoned campfire, to limit its spread into the Pasayten Wilderness.

Trails had been built around 35 percent of the 10,000-acre blaze on the east slopes of the Cascade Range, said Jim Heuring, a spokesman for the state Department of Natural Resources.

``It rained most of the afternoon. That was very beneficial for us,'' he said.

Another wildfire 20 miles south of Winthrop was contained Monday evening at 3,830 acres, Heuring said.

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