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SYCUAN-BIA 2009 FIRE SEASON HOTSHOT CERTIFICATION A SUCCESS! FIRE NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SYCUAN INDIAN RESERVATION — The Sycuan BIA Golden Eagles Interagency Hotshot Crew, a federal crew of wildland firefighters working within the U.S. Department of the Interior, completed its annual 2009 BIA Inter-Agency Hotshot Crew Certification Review on June 10th and earned its official certification for the 2009 fire season after meeting the stringent federal requirements as stated in the Standards for Interagency Hotshot Crew Operations.
Sycuan-BIA Firefighter Adolfo Osuna, third sawyer, Golden Eagles Interagency Hotshot Crew, pictured during the formal BIA certification review on the Sycuan Indian Reservation, June 10, 2009. DOWNLOAD HIGH-RESOLUTION BIA FIRE CAREER FIREFIGHTER POSTER. The young 23-year-old firefighter is a successful graduate of the 2006 Sycuan-BIA Wildland Fire Academy and already has three national fire seasons on his professional firefighter resumé with the DOI, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Sycuan Fire Department elite wildland and aviation programs.
Golden Eagles IHC with BIA certifying fire officials, and Type 3 engine crew posed for a group picture on the Sycuan reservation in San Diego County. DOWNLOAD HIGH-RESOLUTION BIA FIRE POSTER. Crew 63 worked in conjunction with Engine 6361 on the simulated Sycuan fire training incident. The four 6361 engine crew members are pictured to the far left of the group. The five BIA officers are pictured in the back row to the far right.
Veteran crew members of the elite Golden Eagles IHC stand by studying their knowledge information about their IRPG Incident Response Pocket Guide at their Sycuan Base Camp awaiting instructions to proceed with the scheduled personal protective equipment inspection.
BIA Firefighter Chris Rivera, 20, successfully completed the 2007 Sycuan Fire Academy and already has two hard wildland fire seasons under his belt with the BIA and Sycuan fire departments.
Sycuan-BIA Firefighter Michael Flores, 20 (Costanoan-Rumsen-Carmel Indian), graduated the 2007 Sycuan academy and begins his 2009 fire season with valuable wildland fire fighting experience under his belt.
Firefighter Noah De La Rosa, Apache, White Mountain Indian Reservation, attended the 2008 Sycuan-BIA Wildland Fire Academy, and successfully completed the 2008 fire season on the Golden Eagles Interagency Hotshot Crew.
Meanwhile, BIA certifying officials prepped structures for the I-Zone Initial Attack operational scenario — including brush, chemical containers, exposed electrical wiring amongst the other fire hazards — so they could observe how well the tribal Hotshots cleared the area of dangers.
Capt. Madrigal (left) mingled with the BIA inspectors — Josh Simmons (Mescalero Apache-Yankton Sioux Indian), Regional Fuels Management Specialist, BIA Pacific Regional Office and Julie White (Hoopa-Karuk Indian), Natural Resources Administrative Officer, BIA Pacific Region — as they went over the challenging training scenarios before proceeding with the radio call to the Hotshots who were on call nearby at the GEHS Base Camp.
Bureau of Indian Affairs certifying fire officers — (l-r) Superintendent Trenton Prins (Mescalero Apache Indian), Fort Apache Hotshots, BIA Western Region; Regional Assistant Fire Management Officer Jonathan T. Lee (Navajo Indian), BIA Western Region; Regional Fuels Management Specialist Josh Simmons (Mescalero Apache-Yankton Sioux Indian), BIA Pacific Regional Office — discuss training expectations and objectives just prior to calling in the simulated emergency request to start the field proficiency phase of their annual evaluation. FIELD PROFICIENCY
The Golden Eagles firefighters immediately responded to the call, a simulated vegetation fire with structures threatened. At Scene Crew 63 off loaded and performed their standard off-loading responsibilities.
The seasoned IHC firefighters double checked their PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), tools, power equipment and began lining up for the incident briefing.
Under sharp eyes and ears of BIA reviewers, the Sycuan Hotshots lined up and Squad Boss Robert Goodwin (Karuk Indian) briefed his crew on their assignments and objectives, including establishing lookouts, awareness, communications, escape routes, and safety zones. NOTE: The firefighters' backpacks weigh a minimum of 40 pounds each, not including chainsaws, hand tools, fire shelters, extra food and water, and anything extra the firefighter wants or needs to carry.
Sycuan-BIA Firefighter Jeremiah Faumuina, a graduate of the 2008 Sycuan-BIA Wildland Fire Academy, and his fellow professional San Diego County firefighters listened up during the chaotic, but controlled instructional phase.
VETERAN FIREFIGHTERS — Senior Firefighter Michael Smolcich, 26, a 2002 graduate of the Sycuan academy, is pictured in formation. With human lives — their lives — on the line, it is vital the firefighters hear and understand their assignments to establish Lookouts, Communications, Escape Routes, Safety Zones and Trigger Points to recognize and mitigate continuously-changing situations in wildland fire environments.
Firefighter Noah De La Rosa, Apache, White Mountain Indian Reservation, attended the 2008 Sycuan-BIA Wildland Fire Academy.
39 YEARS FIRE-FIGHTING EXPERIENCE BIA Regional Fire Operations Specialist, BIA Pacific Region, Jose Merjil (Tauhrumara Indian) has been a professional fireman for some 39 years (since 1970). Above photos, Firefighter Merjil keeps close tabs on the Golden Eagles' performance — you can bet these sharp eyes don't miss anything related to federal wildland fire fighting safety and training standards.
Native American Indian Firefighter Codey Ridley (Paiute-Shoshone Indian), lead saw on 63B module, began removing ground fuels, ladder fuels and canopy along simulated fire edge. Sycuan Firefighter Donato is the puller on the Golden Eagles's saw team assisting FF Ridley in this photo.
EXTREME FIRE DANGER — Rural Southern California trees grow "ladder fuels" naturally connecting their branches to the ground and allowing ground fire to climb the "ladder" to the crown of tree creating extreme fire dangers. Golden Eagles sawyers used professional STIHL MS460 chainsaws to trim the branches up and away from the ground to help prevent burning grass fires from igniting the lower hanging branches and jumping to the crown.
Native American Indian firefighter, lead sawyer on 63A module, Robert "Junior" Villegas (Tule River Yokut Indian), is pictured operating a STIHL MS460 chainsaw cutting away the ladder fuels and trimming the canopy.
Golden Eagles Hotshots anchored in and began constructing a fire line using common firefighter hand tools such as Pulaskis, shovels, rakes and McClouds.
Constructing fire line rapidly is an essential wildland fire-fighting skill and requires a complete team effort.
Sr. Firefighter Smolcich posts as one of two lookouts on the Sycuan fire. A qualified lookout should be an experienced firefighter who can communicate and advise the crew and adjoining forces about changes in weather, fire behavior, and pre-determined trigger points.
The simulated fire outflanked Crew 63, and the firefighters were instructed to shed their equipment and hustled to their Safety Zone and deploy their fire shelters. Hotshot firefighters are trained to quickly shed their their cumbersome gear and get under the protection of the wildland fire shelters as quickly as possible.
In this scene, the fire fighters were told to buddy up and use two firemen per shelter. Established wildland protocol is interesting because the firefighters maintain continuous verbal contact between shelters, including radio communications to command and control supervisors, to ensure that each crew member is alert, accounted for, and functioning.
SIMULATED MEDICAL EMERGENCY — While inside a fire shelter, a firefighter complained of dizziness, shortness of breath, and tingling in his hands and feet. When a Sycuan crew supervisor was able to determine that fire intensity was safe enough fo his crew to leave their shelters, a Sycuan EMT was assigned to provide medical attention to the injured firefighter.
Golden Eagles Hotshots administered aid — based on the signs and symptoms he exhibited — and prepared the fallen firefighter for medical evacuation by helicopter.
Hotshots carry their fellow crewman away on a backboard to a temporary makeshift landing zone so a helicopter could land on the mountain and Medivac the fireman to a nearby hospital for a thorough medical evaluation and treatment of his injuries.
Josh Simmons, Regional Fuels Management Specialist, BIA Pacific Regional Office, paid very close attention to the crew's packaging of the patient during the Medevac.
BIA inspector Superintendent Trenton Prins, Fort Apache Hotshots, BIA Western Region, helped evaluate the young firefighters throughout their certification process.
All incident participants gathered in a traditional circle for their AAR (After Action Review) and each firefighter gave his and her opinion of how the operation went including suggestions for improving future training procedures.
BIA Regional Assistant Fire Management Officer Jonathan T. Lee, BIA Western Region, congratulated the Sycuan Hotshots for a job well done and noted overall exemplary performances during the field portion of the certification process.
The young firefighters listened up and each crew member gave his opinion about how the Sycuan fire exercise was responded to.
Golden Eagle Hotshot Robert "Junior" Villegas (Tule River Yokut Indian), first sawyer 63A Module. PHYSICAL PERFORMANCE
TOTAL TEAM — Golden Eagles Hotshots regularly PT together so meeting the BIA wildland minimum standards during a 10-minute run was no problem for the close brotherhood — they ran the running test in a fast pace in this very close formation — everyone finished together and went on to the Sycuan Fire Department obstacle course for more PT certifications — DOWNLOAD HIGH RESOLUTION PT POSTER.
Chris Rivera pumps out his chin ups on the Sycuan Fire Dept. obstacle course. At 20 years, Chris already has two fire seasons on his professional resumé as he starts the 2009 fire season.
Hard-core PT, Firefighter Rivera does some kind of hardcore exhibition exercise displaying his strength, balance and agility.
Rivera does a handstand and slowly presses his nose to the ground in this extreme exercise maneuver — don't try this at home...
Not to be out done, Firefighter Goodwin, Karuk Indian, squad boss 63B, followed suit with one of the crazy firefighter pushups.
Golden Eagles Hotshot Cody Ridley, Paiute-Shoshone Indian from Fallon Indian Reservation in Nevada, sports cool firefighter tatoos of a young Indian girl while stretching.
Captain Byron Alcantara holds the feet of Robert Goodwin, Karuk Indian, as they perform sit-ups during the firefighters' workout on the San Diego County Indian reservation.
MAKE NO MISTAKE — The Sycuan Golden Eagles Hotshots are a young, strong and proud brotherhood of firefighters. Above, Firefighter Cody Ridley, Paiute-Shoshone Indian extends a clinched martial arts fist above his head as a sign of victory after his team nailed the 10-minute run in record-like effort.
Golden Eagles Hotshots lined up at Base Camp after the PT tests and thanked the BIA officers.
Chief Murphy took care of some paperwork for the BIA inspectors, Josh Simmons and Jose Merjil. The success of your web site depends on your active participation. Email any corrections, edits and additional caption information to CONTACT WEBMASTER. |
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