Crew History
The Lassen Hotshots were formed in the summer of 1974. The crew was placed at Bogard Work Center on the Eagle Lake Ranger District of the Lassen National Forest. Don Wallace was named the first superintendent of the Lassen Hotshots. Don ran the crew until 1977, at which time Joe Carvelo took over. Due to a budget crisis in 1978, the crew, along with numerous others, was shut down. This was known as “Black Friday” in the hotshot world. Due to a very active fire season in 1979, and the lack of appropriate resources to deal with the many fires, the decision was made to bring back several of the disbanded crews.
In April of 1980, the Lassen Hotshots came back to life under the leadership of Jim “Jaime” Jimenez. Lassen was one of the first crews to travel to Alaska in the 1980’s, and along with the El Dorado Hotshots, the first to fight fire internationally in Canada. Also, Lassen has hosted numerous international firefighters from Chile, India, and Australia.
For twenty-two years Jaime served as the Lassen Hotshot Superintendent, training captains, squad leaders, and countless crewmembers. Many of these hotshots returned to honor Jaime in the spring of 2003, along with friends, family, and several other hotshot superintendents for his retirement party. Throughout his long and prolific career Jaime exemplified the hotshot work ethic of never quitting, always challenging himself and those around him, and by putting honesty, duty, respect, and integrity above all else.
In that tradition, John Bristow was chosen as the next Superintendent prior to the 2003 fire season. John’s service as superintendent lasted until the spring of 2007 when detailing to the Fire Management Officer position for the Almanor Ranger District and going on to accept the position in the spring of 2008.
In the spring of 2009, Fred Brewster was selected as the next Superintendent. Fred’s dedication and service as superintendent saw the crew thru six seasons of hard work, tradition, and many fun and exciting shifts to the end of the 2014 fire season. With Fred’s long respected career as a California Hotshot behind him, Fred continued to be a prolific leader as an Air Attack out of the Chester Air Base until his retirement in 2021.
With the beginning of 2015, we find Allen Schultze as the new Superintendent to carry the Lassen Hotshot tradition into the future.
The Lassen Hotshots are proud to be a part of the California Hotshot community. We continually strive for excellence and to uphold our interagency hotshot crew values.
Overhead
Superintendents
Don Wallace –1974 to 1977
Joe Carvello – 1977 to 1978
Jim Jimenez – 1980 to 2002 (retired in place)
Stan Kubota – 1997 (detailed)
John Bristow – 2003 to 2006
Mike Sherman – 2007 (detailed)
Allen Schultze – 2008 (detailed)
Fred Brewster 2009 to 2014
Allen Schultze 2015 – to Present
Captains
Former crew captains include Joe Carvelho, Scott Vail, Rick Addy, Rod Vineyard, Tommy Tucker, Dave Sandbrook, Bob Edwards, George Schwerian, Bill Walker, Rocky Tow, Larry Vogan, Dave Ramirez, Kelley Jones, Bob Richardson, Paul Johnson, John Bristow, Chuck Lewis, Robert Moreno, Mike Sherman, Allen Schultze, Mike Klimek, Kyle Betty, Jason Bennett, Fernando Estrada, Leland Ratcliff, Brett Matthews (current), Jacob Hernandez (current).