Nineteen Arizona firefighters, 18 from an elite wildfire unit, were killed Sunday in an out-of-control blaze about 80 miles north of Phoenix. The members of the Prescott Fire Department’s Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshot Crew team were dispatched to the front lines of the Yarnell Hill fire to establish a fire line to try to slow fire that reportedly had wind-driven flames as high as 20 feet.

In less than a year, Texas wildfires have consumed 3.6 million acres, roughly the size of Connecticut, notes Paul Begala, an affiliated professor of public policy at Georgetown and Daily Beast and CNN contributor. Four people have been killed and some 1,400 homes have been lost just in the most recent fire. Of the 10 largest wildfires in Texas history, six have occurred this year. Yet, as Begala points out:

Texas governor and GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry has cut funding for volunteer firefighters, who are the first responders to 90 percent of all wildfires in Texas, by 75 percent.