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SYCUAN GOLDEN EAGLES HOTSHOTS

NATIVE AMERICAN FIREFIGHTERS CALIFORNIA IHC:

Kumeyaay-Diegueño Indian Nation.

CONTACT INFORMATION for the BIA-Sycuan Golden Eagles Hotshots.
BASE CAMP: Sycuan Indian Reservation, San Diego County
CREW ESTABLISHED: June 15, 2000, Crew History
SUPERINTENDENT: Juan Mendez (Zapoteca Indian)
DIVISION CHIEF: Wadell Kanseah (Mescalero-Apache)
CHIEF: Hank Murphy (Kumeyaay)

TRAVEL-ADVENTURE — Golden Eagles Hotshots board a NIFC charter jet (above) en route to the Linville Complex Incident, and took a fire crew photo in Bakersfield, CA, June 25, 2007 (below), just prior to boarding the jet aircraft.

THE ULTIMATE ACTIVE LIFESTYLE — DOWNLOAD HIGH-RESOLUTION POSTER (you will want to zoom in on this one), featuring a bit of firefighters' reality from Capt. Alcantara's personal fireman's scrapbook — "Spiked Out Nine Consecutive Days (West Basin Complex, 2008)."

2009 BIA FIRE SEASON CERTIFICATION PICTURES: Golden Eagles Hotshots regularly PT together so meeting the BIA wildland minimum standards during a 10-minute run was no problem for the brotherhood — they ran the running test in a fast pace in this very close formation. DOWNLOAD HIGH RESOLUTION BROTHERHOOD POSTER.

Sycuan Hotshots Captain Madrigal (in red helmet) stands alongside his crew during the 2008 BIA Fire Season Review.

ELITE WILDLAND FIREFIGHTERS:

The Golden Eagles Hotshots received its full Region 5 R5 Type 1 Certified Interagency Hotshot Crew (IHC) status in October 11, 2005.

The Sycuan Tribal Fire Dept. entered into a Public Law 93-638 tribal compact with the Bureau of Indian Affairs BIA-NIFC. This negotiated contract provides Sycuan with logistical and monetary U.S. Government support through federally-funded programs for federally-recognized Indian tribes who meet the stringent qualifications.

Federal funding for Native American tribes provides Sycuan with additional fire resources for national and community fire services, including homeland security, disaster preparedness and emergency response, wildland urban interface WUI, hazardous fuel reduction, fire prevention and suppression, medical emergency services EMS, training center, helicopters and flycrews, facilities, salaries, equipment and fire apparatus.

FYI — There are some 90 BIA Hotshot crews in the United States. Nine of those are Native American crews, including the Sycuan Hotshots crew in San Diego County — see our FEDERAL FIREFIGHTERS CREW DIRECTORY for detailed info about these amazing modern-day heros in the national fire service.

NATIVE AMERICAN HOTSHOTS:

The Sycuan Golden Eagles Hotshots IHC is the only federal BIA-tribal inter-agency hotshot crew in the state of California.

The elite Sycuan hotshot wildland crews consist of a diverse group of many Native American nations including the Kumeyaay, Paiute, Pomo, Pima, Karuk, Lakota, Sioux, Zapoteca, Hatuey, Mescalero-Apache, Tule River, Chumash and Cahuilla Native American Indian tribes of North America.

NON-NATIVE HOTSHOT FIREFIGHTERS:

The Sycuan Fire Department California hotshots team members also include a mix of non-native firefighters from the Latino, Filipino, African American and Anglo communities.

California Golden Eagles IHC 63 photographed at the base of a rural Southern California Indian mountain during final briefing prior to special night operations.

SEE HOTSHOTS CAREER-TRAINING VIDEOS:

GOLDEN EAGLES FLYCREWS:

In June of 2003 the Golden Eagles Hotshots established the GOLDEN EAGLES FLYCREW in partnership with the San Diego City Fire and Rescue Department.

The Sycuan firefighting aviation wing is an ICS Type I Flycrew stationed at Montgomery Air Field in San Diego.

The Sycuan ground and flycrew personnel receive highly-specialized training, including flight crew, EMT (emergency medical technician), sawyers, squad bosses, radio operators, heli-base managers, heli repellers, safety officers, fly-by-wires, heli-tack (ground support unit air operations). Further, all Sycuan hotshot personal are qualified type-3 apparatus operators.

Sycuan hotshots heli-tack ground crew brings in San Diego City Copter One for a landing on a Sycuan mountain top on the Sycuan reservation during a training exercise.

MONTGOMERY HELIBASE, SAN DIEGO — Chief Kanseah leads a squad of Sycuan aviation students away from San Diego City Copter 2 — DOWNLOAD 10-INCH SCRAPBOOK PICTURE.

Sycuan Fire Department GOLDEN EAGLES FLYCREW 1 (in yellow) takes a picture with a Rogers Helicopters CWN contract crew during the historic San Diego wildfires in October 2007.

The Sycuan Hotshots have a variety of state-of-the-art firefighting apparatus.

BIA WILDLAND FIRE FIGHTING COPTER.

Sycuan-BIA Firefighter Osuna, sawyer of the Golden Eagles Interagency Hotshot Crew 63B, pictured during the formal 2009 BIA certification process on the Sycuan Indian Reservation. DOWNLOAD HIGH-RESOLUTION BIA FIRE CAREER FIREFIGHTER POSTER.

The young firefighter is a successful graduate of the 2006 BIA Wildland Fire Academy at Sycuan and already has three long fire seasons on his professional firefighter resumé with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Sycuan Fire Department elite wildland and aviation programs.

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