Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. -James 1:27
We are told that in the last days, men’s hearts will grow cold. I did not think they would grow this cold. The city government of Prescott, Az has determined that the widow and orphans of Andrew Ashcraft are not eligible for lifetime benefits because he was not considered a full time employee at the time of his death defending the very city that will not stand up for his family.
Andrew Ashcraft, 29, was a three-year city employee and one of the Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshot Crew members who were overrun by flames June 30 while battling a fast-moving blaze in the small town of Yarnell, about 35 miles south of Prescott. Only one member of the crew survived.
Ashcraft’s widow says she filed for the same benefits — including income and health benefits — as other families of hotshots killed in the Yarnell Hill fire, but was told last month that she didn’t qualify because even though her husband was working full time when he died, he was technically a part-time employee.
“I want to be able to just be mourning my husband, be supporting my children, be figuring out what our new normal is,” Juliann Ashcraft, 28, said in a statement Wednesday. “As shocked as I was that my husband went to work and never came home, I’m equally shocked in how the city has treated our family since then.”
The city is refusing to pay Mrs Ashcraft her husband’s lifetime salary and health benefits, which together are worth millions, because it insists he was among 13 of the squad who were seasonal employees rather than full-timers. Only six of the 19 firefighters are entitled to full-time benefits, the city claims.
Now she is considering suing the City of Prescott for the benefits and salary that her husband.
‘Everyone says every day will get better and in fact every day gets harder,’ Juliann Ashcraft said at a news conference in front of the Prescott city courthouse Wednesday.
Comments are closed.