Summer Break on the Fire Line
Cal Poly's Student Firefighting Crew in Action
BY ANNMARIE CORNEJO
Listening to the crackle of brush and feeling the weight of smoke in the air wasn’t how most Cal Poly students spent their summer break, but for a handful of them, the classroom was replaced by the fire line. Continuing a longstanding tradition, members of the Santa Lucia Crew 7, a student-based, Type II, firefighting hand crew, carried on Cal Poly’s legacy of boots-on-the-ground fire experience.
Employed through the U.S. Forest Service, stationed in Santa Maria, the students worked multiple fires including the 489-acre Lake Fire in San Bernardino County, the 80,779-acre Madre Fire in San Luis Obispo County and 131,614-acre Gifford Fire that spanned both San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties and remains the largest California wildfire this year.
Reese Catchings, a fourth-year agricultural communication major and student photographer for the college, spent 35 days working alongside elite first responders at the Gifford Fire. His crew spent long days carving firebreaks around homes in an effort to shield them from advancing flames, then turned to clearing brush in effort to slow the fire’s relentless spread. The fire would burn for nearly 37 days before it was fully contained.
“We spent our days operating alongside other crews, working toward a huge goal that seemed unimaginable,” Catchings said. “But eventually we would reach that goal and it was the greatest feeling ever. Being a part of the crew definitely made me feel like I was a part of something bigger.”
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