Firefighters and utility workers from the Navajo Nation traveled to Southern California to assist in the wildfire response and recovery efforts. Their mission included clearing landslide debris, extinguishing hot spots, and restoring power to affected areas.
Firefighters from the Navajo Nation battled a Southern California landslide, working tirelessly to clear a road amidst dust and exhaustion. The 23-member crew, who traveled two days from Fort Defiance, Arizona, joined the fight against wildfires that have claimed at least 27 lives, destroyed over 12,000 structures, and displaced more than 80,000 residents.
Their mission outside Los Angeles was two-fold: restoring vehicle access to the mountainside and assessing the fire damage to structures at the summit. The Navajo Scouts' 'initial attack' crew, including several elite hotshot-certified firefighters, helped Los Angeles residents navigate landslides, remove mangled trees, and extinguish lingering 'hot spot' fires. 'We all feel like we're giving back to the people,' said Brian Billie, an emergency coordinator for the Navajo Scouts. 'Just talking to the locals, some of them have been here ever since childhood and they lost their homes.' The crew's efforts were praised by Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren, who thanked them for 'answering the call' to protect people in Los Angeles, including the Navajo diaspora living there. Eleven electric utility journeymen from the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority also deployed to Los Angeles to assist in the wildfire response and recovery. These skilled workers, qualified to handle both new construction and 'hot' lines, are repaying a debt of gratitude. In recent years, utility workers from the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power traveled to the Navajo Nation on a training mission, helping extend power to 170 Navajo households that previously lacked service. Deenise Becenti, a spokesperson for the Navajo utility, explained that this deployment to Los Angeles marks the first participation in a major mutual aid project beyond their homeland. 'There's a deep sense of pride not only for our utility employees here but people throughout the Navajo Nation ... in sending firefighters and now utility workers to help an area that's been just hit severely by a force of nature,' said Becenti, noting that Los Angeles is home to many Navajo citizens. 'As far as we know we're the only tribal utility that is sending crews' to Los Angeles. More than 10,400 families live without electricity across the vast Navajo Nation, a legacy of gaps in the U.S. rural electrification efforts of the 1930s. Navajo utility crews are accustomed to living away from home periodically for major construction projects on the reservation, but this deployment to Los Angeles signifies a new level of intertribal cooperation and support in the face of disaster
Navajo Nation Wildfires Los Angeles Mutual Aid Disaster Relief
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