Fighting Fire with Fire

Corpsmembers Deploy Statewide
One year ago Luke Duivenvoorden was bagging groceries at a local market, Anne Garn worked at a big box retailer stocking shelves, Jason Venske was flipping burgers and Kevin Oxley was making a career out of sitting on his dad’s couch.

Today they’re fighting fires with the CCC’s “Shasta 21”
fire crew.

Battling forest fires has been a part of the California Conservation Corps' mission since it was created in 1976, and a legacy of the work done by Civilian Conservation Corps crews during the 1930s. Over the years, modern-day CCC crews have been dispatched to nearly every major fire in the state.

The CCC's fire response work ranges from providing logistical support at the fire camps to initial attack on the firelines.

The CCC's Type II crews, which receive extensive physical and classroom training, fight fires and assist with mop-up of hot spots after the fire is out. “The training is unbelievable," said Chris Hodges from the back of the crew's transport vehicle after spending the last five hours in a burning forest with a chainsaw. “This is what I want for the rest of my life.”

At major fire camps, which often support 2,000 or more firefighters around-the-clock, corpsmembers can be found running the supply operations, assisting with food service, rolling up fire hoses, helping with set-up and tear-down of the camp and more.

As of November 2007, the CCC looks back on an extremely busy 2007 fire season. John Martinez, the Corps' Emergency Services Unit manager, finally has a chance to catch his breath, some 40 fires later. "Though we were very active for a long stretch earlier in the season, throughout the state, the October fires in Southern California happened overnight, and required a lot of resources very quickly," John said. "We sent out 38 crews, more than 500 corpsmembers. All the centers stepped up and provided the resources that were needed.This year seems to be a season I don't think we'll forget anytime soon."

The CCC’s “Shasta 21” crew out of Redding was deployed to help fight the Poomacha fire on Mt. Palomar in San Diego County. “We’ve been brushing out roads, cutting fire lines, getting chased by the fire back to the safety zone. We thought we were through for the season and then these Santa Ana winds flared up and here we are," noted Shawn Fry, fire crew supervisor on the Shasta 21 fire crew. He’s been running the Type II fire response teams for the past seven years. Through the sound of chainsaws and crackling trees you can hear Fry barking orders to his crew, orders that are followed without any hesitation or questioning. This is a well-oiled, tightly run machine and any goofing off on the line is met with a sharp and swift reprimand from Fry followed later by encouragement and joking back in the crew vehicle. He has clearly earned their respect and admiration.

From July through September a total of 142 CCC crews were called out, responding to at least 15 fires for CAL FIRE and 18 for the U.S. Forest Service. Nearly 115,000 hours were provided to the two agencies. The largest incident was the Zaca Fire in Santa Barbara County, which raged for two months in the Los Padres National Forest. "We had 48 different crew requests for this fire," John said.

Other major fires to which the CCC responded were the Moonlight Fire in Plumas County, the Lick Fire in Santa Clara County and the Elk Fire in Siskiyou County. Then, as the Santa Ana winds picked up in October, the CCC dispatched more than 500 corpsmembers and staff to fires in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and San Diego counties. Crews were called in from as far away as Lake Tahoe and Redding.

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