Members of the Vandenberg Fire Department and senior base officials met on South Base Dec. 20th to honor the memory of Team V personnel who perished in the Honda Ridge Fire 36 years ago.
“Fires on this base usually burn low-frequency but high-intensity,” said Jesse Hendricks, Vandenberg Hot Shots superintendent. “So when we do have fires on this base, they burn hot. About 51,000 acres of 91,000 acres of this installation is brush and wildlife.”
This held true on the morning of Dec. 20, 1977, when high winds caused a power pole to snap, allegedly igniting the dense chaparral that covered a canyon on the southern portion of Vandenberg.
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