LAFD photos by Gary Apodaca
On June 18, the LAFD made department history when it graduated its first full-time, paid Wildland Hand Crew Technicians, Crew 4.
These 20 members completed the Crew 4 training academy, which included education on wildland fire behavior, weather, chainsaw operations, and line cutting; the recruits also engaged in team building and completed numerous certifications over the five weeks.
Supervised by two Foremen and a Superintendent, and operating within LAFD’s Disaster Response Section, Crew 4 will respond to wildfires within and around the city of Los Angeles. When not fighting wildfires, they will be heavily involved in vegetation clearance and management, as well as training to augment LAFD’s response to all-hazard incidents such as debris flows and technical rescues.
The City’s new Wildland Hand Crew Technicians are:
- Aaron Navarro
- Alec Derpetrossian
- Alexander Rodriguez
- Alexis Gonzalez
- Amedeo Cordola
- Andrew Casper-Flores
- Brian Cuevas
- Christopher Nagel
- Christian Hernandez
- Cynthia Moreno
- Genaro Aguilar Cortes
- Justin Treiber
- Kaleb Jueden
- Nathan Fregoso
- Nicholas Donoho
- Pedro Rodriguez
- Ricardo Hernandez
- Richard Salinas
- Sebastian Alfonzo Cuevas
- William Thompson
Congratulations to the history-making Crew 4!
