![]() ![]() His performance with the Mojave Greens landed him a full-time position with the Big Bear Forest Service Crew in 2003. I was able to keep my head down and work and absorb information like a sponge and they noticed.” That first season was a literal baptism by fire for Mitchell as the Grand Prix Fire broke out down the hill and spread to the Cajon Pass, and the Old Fire broke out in the San Bernardino Mountains. “I was just looking for a job, and it was a job. “I didn’t know what I was getting myself into,” Mitchell said. He took the physical fitness test and got his name on the on-call roster. “He really didn’t know what he was going to do, but he had to take some classes.” Mitchell said a National Forest Service representative came and spoke to one of his fire science classes on the last day, recruiting for the Mojave Greens, a seasonal hand crew that is on call from May through November. “He was a typical kid,” his mother Ingrid Mitchell said. Soon after, he began taking fire science classes at Victor Valley College just to keep a full class load. ![]() After suffering a stroke in 2000 for reasons still unknown, Mitchell recovered in a week and graduated from Granite Hills High School in 2002. Looking at his rise to his current position, it would be hard to imagine Mitchell started his firefighting career on a whim. The difference? Seth is not a 19-year-old hand crew member, but a captain and acting division chief, positions putting him well on his way to his goal of becoming a Forest Service supervisor. Now 30, with a 7-yearold daughter, the Apple Valley resident has just returned home after a week in San Diego, in the world of wildfires where he got his start. “He always wanted to be a deep sea rescue diver with the Army, but he had a stroke at 16 and the Army was hesitant in taking him, so he decided to go the firefighting route,” Tom Mitchell said of his son. For 19-year-old Seth Mitchell, the 2003 fire season served as his initiation into the firefighting world. Veteran firefighters describe the 2003 Old Fire as “spooky,” “crazy” and “tragic.” The fire forced evacuations in Summit Valley, areas of Hesperia near the airport and in Oak Hills. Mitchell just returned from battling Fallbrook blazeįeatured in the Victor Valley Daily Press Apple Valley Firefighter Moving Up The Ladder
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