FORT HUACHUCA, Arizona -- The Bureau of Land Management Arizona State Fire Management Office opened the Aravaipa Fire Operations Facility at Fort Huachuca with a ribbon cutting ceremony and guest speakers April 28.
Maj. Gen. Scott Berrier, commanding general, U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence and Fort Huachuca, opened the event by welcoming a new member to Team Huachuca.
"You have to be committed, you have to be dedicated at Team Huachuca; (it) comprised of Soldiers, our great civilian workforce, our Families, our contractors; it includes our community partners, includes Retirees, our great representatives from the state of Arizona, our great state and federal agencies," Berrier said. "It feels like today we are welcoming a new member of the Family.
"We both go into dangerous places," Berrier said comparing Soldiers and firefighters. "We both put sacrifice at the top of the list in terms of what we have to do to defend our countries. Speaking of our country, we both defend it, in slightly different ways. But service first, always taking care of each other, always taking care of Families, and I think that is the unity and the cause here today as we welcome our Hotshots to Team Huachuca."
Prior to the 1930s, wildland firefighting crews were organized on an as-needed basis with no formal experience or training for fighting fires said Kelly Castillo, BLM Arizona State fire management officer.
"I can remember my grandfather telling me way back when that they used to get firefighters out of the local bars or wherever they could and loaded them on the trucks and send them to the fire," Castillo mused. "It was a little helter-skelter and unorganized.
"In 1933 the Civilian Conservation Corps began a work relief program that employed young men to work in natural resource conservation," as the initial hand crews. They established the first firefighting crews and hand crews and after "50 years the hand crews have evolved to skilled and highly trained working units that work on these wildland fires," he said.
Castillo explained there are two types of hand crews for fighting fires and Type One, or Hotshot, hand crews were the most elite.
"There are 113 interagency Hotshot crews nationally, out of those 113 there are only 11 BLM Hotshot crews nationally," he said.
"To reach this elite status as Type One, a hand crew must gain extensive experience, attain higher qualifications, and go through vigorous training. They are quite a bit above the Type Two crews with all their training and everything else they have to go through."
According to Castillo, it takes several fire seasons and certification from the sponsoring agency in order to attain a type one status.
"The Aravaipa crew that we are talking about today is in its second season and is working to gain Hotshot status," he explained. "Once they do that, they will be the only BLM Hotshot crew in the southwest geographic area, which includes Arizona, New Mexico and part of Texas. This could happen as early as 2019."
Raymond Suazo, BLM Arizona State director, credited the partnership with Fort Huachuca for the Aravaipa crew becoming an operational Hotshot crew soon possible.
"A couple of years ago, we had the opportunity to host the Jackson Hotshot crew. And the Jackson Hotshot crew was hosted by our partners here at Fort Huachuca," Suazo said. "And they were spending time throughout the landscape, doing restoration work, being responsive to fire, and fulfilling not just our mission, but the mission here on the fort as well.
"Through great partnership, we decided to step forward and talk about what about a permanent Hotshot crew. As a military veteran myself, I could see the parallel between the work on the fire line and public service and military service, and the training and the commitment that it takes to do both."
Suazo said that plan has now come to fruition and the Aravaipa crew "will not only provide suppression support, they will also be serving their American family before and after the fire season. They will work to create defensible space in our communities by reducing vegetation that fuels fires throughout the landscape. Both here on Fort Huachuca and in the surrounding communities."
Suazo said the partnership looked to have future dividends for Soldiers and veterans.
"Today we celebrate the partnership honoring the past military service of many on our crew, but also excited about the future of what this crew will bring," he added. "Making America safe, by putting veterans back to work. It's our hope that in the future we'll be able to allow veterans that come off service to train with us and to have the opportunity to become future wildland firefighters."
Mike Nedd, acting BLM director, said the BLM fills many roles as an agency but that most of those are based on partnership.
"Partnership is how we do our work," Nedd said. "We, the BLM, believe and understand that even though we are 10,000 strong, with partnerships we multiply to 90,000, a million strong. Today we thank [Fort Huachuca] for inviting us to be a part of your team today.
"Our partnership working with Fort Huachuca, the State Forestry, the [Cochise] County emergency service, are truly an example of working together what we can do. We are proud to be able to be a part of this organization."
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