The Laguna Hot Shots and their Superintendent Jim Houston appear briefly in the video story above, which is Part 1 of an NBC News series about climate change. One of the main points in the first video is that soot from forest fires contributes to air pollution that settles on arctic ice, causing it to darken, absorb more solar heat, and melt more quickly.
In Part 2 below, Superintendent Houston talks briefly about the 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots that died last year, not long after the Laguna Hotshots worked with them on another fire.
I was a member of the Laguna Hotshots for two years, beginning the year it was created in 1974 at Mt. Laguna, California.
Bill, please excuse this off topic trip down memory lane…
As I recall you guys (Laguna HS) were assigned day shifts and we (Little T HS) were assigned night shifts. Re-mobed from the Hemet Fire (San Jac BDF) we got to the Pacomia Fire mid-incident. I was the assitant foreman. You and I most likely talked at the informal shift change briefing out on the line (Mendenhall Truck Trail) prior to Little T’s first shift. That shift change and our following night is one of many vivid, terrifying and fond career memories I have.
It’s not like you guys didn’t warn us!
The wildland fire community has always been a small world.
Bill,
Off topic… Can I gather you were with Laguna HS in August of 1975 when they were assigned to the Pacomia Fire, on the old Tujunga RD of the Angeles NF? (The first large wildland fire managed under ICS?).
If so you and I, indeed everyone on that fire, share a moment in histroy.
Back on topic… Loads of respect for and a shout out to Laguna HS over these decades.
Little use for NBC News and Ann Curry.
That’s correct, David. I was a foreman on the crew in ’74 and ’75, then moved to engines, prevention, back to engines, FMO, and Area FMO.