The Kern County Board of Supervisors voted to eliminate funding for the only County funded Type One Hotshot Wildland Firefighting Crew in not only Kern County California, but the United States entirely. Rio Bravo Hotshots are a unique fire fighting crew that serves as a county, state and national resource based in the small community of Kern River Valley. The remaining Hotshot crews across the US are hosted by federal and state agencies.
Over the past few months rumors have been floating around in local firehouses with an assumption that Rio Bravo’s 2020 fate would be inevitable. The combination of low interest and motivation for KCFD firefighters to adapt to seasonal hotshot crew schedule and culture, low moral and budget cuts created the perfect storm. Another important note is not just any Kern County Firefighter can supervise a Hotshot crew. There are a number of wildland qualifications that must be met by crew leadership which are not easy to attain.
Rio Bravo has been successful for many years in maintaining their Type One IHC status, something that is not easy to attain. Interagency Hotshot Crews (IHC) are Type 1 Crews that exceed the Type 1 Standards as required by the Standards for Interagency Hotshot Crew Operations. However due to KCFD Union pay negotiations several years ago, surrounding seasonal employees and portal to portal pay, filling federal resource orders outside of California and maintaining IHC status has become increasingly difficult for a number of reasons which is best discussed in another article.
Not long ago there were three crews in the US similar to Rio Bravo. In 2013 after the devastating Yarnell Hill fire the city of Prescott voted to not rebuild Granite Mountain hotshots after their tragic loss of 19 firefighters. This left only two other Hotshot Crews funded by municipal departments in the nation. Ironwood IHC of Northwest Arizona and Rio Bravo IHC of Kern County Fire Department in California.
In 2014 the wildland community was once again shocked when apparently for “financial and operational” reasons Ironwood IHC was disbanded, suspiciously following the devastation of Granite Mountain. The ripple effect across the nation after losing another IHC is still felt to this day.
Fast forward to 2020 to find a press release from Kern County Fire Department issued last week. It simply states, as an ending remark in their fire Wildfire Advisory and resource list that “Rio Bravo Crew 7 will be unstaffed for 2020 due to budget constraints.” However the rumblings throughout the department and community tell a deeper story.
As wildfire season 2020 rears its head, the decision to shutdown Rio Bravo Hotshot Crew for 2020 was met with anger and uncertainty on social media across the western states:
“I’ll bet that there were plenty of other areas to make budget cuts, people are playing politics with citizens’ safety. Time for a change in County Commissioners.”
“When push comes to shove, don’t go to Kern County. Just SAYIN’.”
“The unfortunate fact of budget deficits for every single city, county and state!! With Chaos in Seattle and COVID-19 not ending anytime soon. It will unfortunately put our family’s, friends, homes and public at risk for a dangerous year/years/decades…”
“Another move they will regret.”
“Looking at my property tax bill, I have 17 additional local taxes,bonds whatever that I pay. Don’t really understand how they cut services & then justify it as a budget short coming. Homeowners pay for a lot of these services.”
“No deputies, no fire protection, what can go wrong!!”
“Sounds like a political game against the fed government. The county makes money when they go to fed fires, which they have historically a lot. Why else defund them?”
“When we need a crew for a fire they will call in one from another area and Kern county will pay extra for an out of area crew.”
“Short sighted decision here. KC is losing a great recruiting tool. Crews are a great entry point for future career firefighters and the experience gained on a hand crew is irreplaceable.”
“We need them.”
“This is terrible!!!! We are coming up on fire season!!!!!
“The big question is where is the money going?”
“This is why our unemployment keeps rising.”
“The board of supervisors will take a lot of heat for this… literally.”
The press release from Kern County Fire Department also states; “The decision was made after careful coordination with our partner agencies at the Bureau of Land Management and US Forest Service.” According to sources within those federal agencies the coordination efforts were to update the 2020 Wildfire Response Plan, not the decision to make Rio Bravo unavailable for wildfire response. That decision was not discussed with federal wildfire suppression directors in California who have counted on Rio Bravo IHC’s availability for decades.
