LOS ANGELES — Firefighters from the Navajo Nation have been working diligently amid dust and debris to clear a mountain road affected by a landslide in Southern California. This strenuous labor is part of their ongoing efforts against the Eaton Fire, which has been burning for eight consecutive days.
The Navajo Scouts, a group of 23 fire crew members, traveled for two days from their base at Fort Defiance along the Arizona-New Mexico border to join firefighting efforts in Southern California. Their primary tasks on Friday included reopening access to the mountain near Altadena and assessing the damage caused by the fire to nearby structures. The team is one of several consisting of Native American tribes and the Bureau of Indian Affairs fighting the devastating wildfires that have claimed at least 27 lives and destroyed upwards of 12,000 buildings, leaving over 80,000 individuals under evacuation orders.
The team’s “initial attack” group comprises several highly skilled, hotshot-certified firefighters. They have been instrumental in clearing landslides, uprooted trees, and extinguishing residual smoke from the fire. According to Brian Billie, an emergency coordinator for the Navajo Scouts, this mission is about giving back to the community. Billie emphasized the emotional impact of conversing with local residents who have lost their homes, some of whom have lived in the area since childhood.
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren commended the crew for stepping up to protect the residents of Los Angeles, particularly the Navajo community residing there. In a message shared on social media platform X, he expressed heartfelt wishes for the safety of the Scouts and their safe return home.
In addition to the firefighting unit, eleven electric utility workers from the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority have also been sent to Los Angeles to support wildfire response and recovery operations. These journeymen are skilled in both new construction and working with “hot” lines. According to Deenise Becenti, a spokesperson for the Navajo utility, their involvement serves as a way to repay support received in the past when Los Angeles utility workers helped expand electricity access to numerous Navajo households lacking service.
Currently, over 10,400 families in the Navajo Nation live without electricity, a challenge rooted in the inadequacies of U.S. rural electrification efforts dating back to the 1930s. Becenti noted that while Navajo utility teams are accustomed to working away from home for major projects, their deployment to Los Angeles signifies their first participation in a major mutual aid initiative outside their own territory.
“There’s a profound sense of pride among our utility employees and members throughout the Navajo Nation in sending both firefighters and utility workers to support a region severely impacted by natural disasters,” Becenti commented, pointing out that Los Angeles has a significant population of Navajo citizens. “To our knowledge, we are the only tribal utility actively dispatching crews to Los Angeles at this critical time.”
