Kathi Wright - Special to the Sun

The Kern River Valley is small and affords its residents a slow-paced, rural lifestyle. What lives and breathes beneath the mountain peaks surrounding it, however, makes it the great place we call ’Äòhome sweet home.’

On Sierra Way, next to the airport cafˆ©, you will find a cluster of buildings that are home to the USFS’ Kernville Helitack Station. This team receives specialized training that affords them a ’Äòbirds eye view’ of a wild land fire. Their mode of transport is different than that utilized by other local crews. Not relying on a traditional fire engine as part and parcel of their suppression arsenal, this crew flies to the blaze by helicopter, then rappels down a 250-foot rope to the scene of the action. They wear a harness and carry small tools and supplies in a 'belly bag' on the front of their bodies as they move from sky to earth. Isidoro Solis is the Superintendent of this year’s eighteen-person crew. He explains, 'Our function is as an initial attack unit. We get in while the fire is small, and get out as quickly as we can.' Once the crew is on the ground, Isidoro will lower the larger tools down to them before he himself rappels to the site. As in other fire crews, each person has a specific job to perform while fighting the fire. There is a swamper and a sawyer on this crew, as there is on other types of crews. 'Staffing of the aircraft is important,' he says. 'Half of the crew can stay, if needed, on a fire, but I have to keep the helicopter staffed and the crew rested.'

Solis came to the Valley in 1990 from Earlimart. He took forestry and wildlife management classes at Bakersfield College, working summers as a fire fighter. The firefighting bug bit him and it became an integral part of his life. In addition to being Superintendent of this crew, he now is part of the USFS’ International Program that provides training to personnel from other countries, such as Mexico and Honduras, teaching them to employ these same fire suppression techniques on their home turf. In the recent past, before the advent of the international program’s training, the smoke from fires in Mexico traveled from the jungles of the Yucatan to the state of Texas, resulting in an airport closure in Houston. This type of problem should be a thing of the past with improved fire containment procedures.

Crewmember Lorenzo Miranda graduated from South High School in Bakersfield in 2001. He wanted to be a journalist, and worked as a writer for the Californian before changing paths and choosing firefighting as a career. He received a degree in Fire Science from Bakersfield College in 2003. 'I changed professions after 9/11. I wanted to help people. On a fire crew, you have to learn to get along with others, and learn when to back off, too. In journalism, you work alone.' Lorenzo has twice been to a basic academy, and once to an advanced academy training program. He would like to obtain the position of senior firefighter. To that end, he has spent time on a hand crew, on an engine crew, and now on the Helitack crew.

Holding the position of Lead Firefighter is Shawn Rambo, who started with this crew in 2004. He hails, originally, from Washington State, where he was a county firefighter before transferring to a USFS position in Twisp. He accepted an apprenticeship with the Democrat crew before landing in Kernville. He finds rappelling 'exciting' and says the 'adrenalin keeps you going.' He adds, 'You keep pushing yourself ’Äì the other crew members are working hard. This is a great crew.'

Kernville has long been home to the Helitack station. Back in the early days of the station, the crew would fly by helicopter only to the general proximity of a fire, and then would have to hike in to the actual site of the blaze. The specialized rappelling aspect of this crew came later, in the early 1990’s. Dangling from 250 feet of rope in a brisk wind . . . It’s all in a day’s work!