A Sad Evening in the Hospital

As I was walking out of the hospital after an afternoon of clearing out dictations yesterday, I saw an unusual scene in the lobby - there were a bunch of men in US Forest Service uniforms lining up on one side of the lobby, and not far from them there were about 20 people -some of them were weeping, others were keeping with their heads down. I did not stop to talk to anyone of them as it didn't seem appropriate, but I knew something bad must have happened - our hospital has been taking care of the firefighters who were severely injured while taming the Esperanza wildfire nearby. Later I found out that a firefighter who's been battling his life for 6 days died that late afternoon. That brings the total death toll to five. Even though I don't know the person, I could feel a great sense of sorrow for the lost...