Hotshot crew

Hotshots are trained and equipped to work in remote areas for extended periods of time with minimal logistical support.

They are organized by the United States Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, and Alaska and Utah state agencies; the National Interagency Fire Center coordinates hotshot crews on the federal level.

CCC members were also utilized for fire suppression operations, however, marking the first time that standing crews had been established for that purpose.

[1] At least one of the first crews carrying the name of "hotshots" originated out of a former CCC camp in the San Bernardino National Forest in Southern California.

Like other handcrews, IHCs are primarily tasked with constructing, firing out and holding firebreaks, through the use of chainsaws, hand tools, ignition devices and water delivery equipment.

[4] On November 1, 1966, the El Cariso hotshot crew were trapped by flames in the Loop Fire as they worked on a steep hillside in Pacoima Canyon in Angeles National Forest.

The Downhill Indirect Checklist, improved firefighting equipment and better fire-behavior training all resulted, in part, from the lives lost on this fire.

[5] On July 6, 1994, nine members of a hotshot crew based in Prineville, Oregon, died after being overtaken by the fast-moving South Canyon Fire on Storm King Mountain west of Glenwood Springs, Colorado.