Firefighter dies in rappelling accident on Camelback

Happened upon this today, sounds awful. Now with two deaths. Took a peek on MP to see if there was more info, but didn't find anything I'll be happy to remove if something has already been started.

As usual aside from feeling awful, most of us are immediately wondering what happened to cause this. I'd go with catastrophic failure of some sort.

Tragic loss of loss for family and community.

azcentral.com/story/news/lo…

A local tv news station did a bio on the firefighter. All they reported about the accident was that the rope snapped.

Anchor failure? It was also reported as a rappelling accident. How do three people fall at once?
Added: the media screws things up all the time, but we know as climbers that the rope didn't just snap.

If the anchor fails, everyone falls. Doesn't matter if they were doing a stacked rappel or if two of them were just clipped in to the masterpoint.

Prayers for everyone involved.

Curious indeed as to what will turn up with the investigation. I asked an pseudo-inside source, so far no definitive answer yet. The guy was experienced, the news reports were correct about that.

Human error can sneak up on any of us. Hardware, anchored to a rock or tree failure.... suppose anything is possible.

Just awful for friends, loved ones and family.

My condolences and respect go out to the families who have to endure the loss of their loved ones. Tragic indeed.

azcentral.com/story/news/lo…

This may be the same link posted in the OP.

I cannot think of any place in that area that you would have multiple people attached to the same anchor nor are there any sequenced rappels. The headwall is about 40ft and has a class 4 climb along with some easy class 5s (5.0, 5.1 if I remember correctly). They could have been free climbing this area to reach the praying monk. If the top person slips, they could easily knock others off.