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Hotshots
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Hotshots
Courtesy Oregon/Washington Bureau of Land Management. Reprinted with permission.
An interagency hotshot crew (IHC) based in Lakeview has been certified as the nation’s first hotshot crew made up entirely of military veterans. The Lakeview Veterans IHC is now the only crew in the country focused on recruiting and developing veterans.
Interagency hotshot crews are elite teams of wildland firefighters, the most highly trained and experienced in the country. They are prepared to battle the most serious fires nationwide, and they must meet and maintain stringent requirements to achieve IHC status. Their primary mission is to provide a safe, professional, mobile response to all phases of fire management and incident operations.
IHCs are staffed, conditioned, equipped and qualified to meet a variety of strategic and tactical wildland fire assignments, and they are typically relied upon for the most challenging fire assignments. When not committed to fire assignments, IHCs provide a workforce to accomplish a variety of resource management objectives while maintaining availability for incident mobilization.
The Lakeview Crew was formed in 2000 and reorganized in 2011 to help military veterans transition to productive careers.
A member of the Lakeview Veterans Interagency Hotshot Crew pauses for a photo op while working on the scene of the Cougar Creek Fire in central Washington last summer.
“Crew 7 is a small step forward in ensuring that our veterans are taken care of and the favor is returned for the federal service that has been given,” said Tim Gibilisco, a module leader for the team who served in Afghanistan.
In March 2016, the fire leaders requested that Crew 7 begin the process to be certified as a hotshot crew. The crew went through the review process in 2017 and was recommended for certification in 2018.
More than 250 members of the Washington Army National Guard trained with BLM Crew 7 at the Yakima Training Center.
During the 2018 wildfire season, Lakeview Crew 7 battled fires across the West, including the large Cougar Creek Fire in central Washington.
“Our time spent in the military is a key ingredient to our achievements,” said Levi VanderMolen, another member of Crew 7. “It’s what separates us from other crews and inspires us to work harder and become the best.”
The Lakeview Veterans IHC will provide an opportunity for veterans to work in a team environment and build skills and experience.
Team members will also learn about opportunities to work for and become competitive for employment with the federal government in other natural resource arenas.
