Statement from Southern California Wildfire Response

October 2026

In Response to KCRW’s Reporting on Our Department

Southern California Wildfire Response (SCWR) strongly disputes several claims and characterizations made in KCRW’s reporting about our department, our firefighters, and our history of emergency operations in Los Angeles.

We have provided KCRW with more than 90 photographs, emails, and other records documenting our work. Many of the claims made in the article directly contradict that documentation, statements previously made by agency personnel, and our actual operations.

For the benefit of our firefighters, donors, agency partners, and the public, we want to address these claims directly.

1. Our Status as a Fire Department

SCWR is a volunteer fire department. California law recognizes volunteer firefighters, private firefighting organizations, and organized fire companies under Labor Code § 3211.5, Title 8, California Code of Regulations § 3411, Revenue and Taxation Code § 6018.10, and Health and Safety Code §§ 14825–14845.

SCWR operates as a volunteer firefighting organization within this recognized legal framework.

We are not a freelance organization, nor are our firefighters simply good-samaritan volunteers who insert themselves into emergency scenes. We have trained and credentialed firefighters, fire apparatus, operational policies, and established relationships with agencies we support.

2. Our Relationship with the City of Los Angeles

SCWR has historically coordinated its operations with City of Los Angeles personnel and supported public safety needs identified by City representatives.

SCWR crews have worked hand-in-hand with City of Los Angeles firefighters and LA City Park Rangers on a regular basis. Photo documentation greatly backs this up.

We dispute the suggestion that our firefighters have never operated alongside city firefighters or assisted them with emergency incidents.

We have never claimed to be part of LAFD. We have claimed, and continue to stand by, the fact that our crews have worked together with LAFD personnel.

A working relationship does not equate to an endorsement, and additional context explaining that distinction is not a retraction of any previously made statement.

3. Our Work in the Santa Monica Mountains

SCWR maintained an agreement with TreePeople, to provide fire prevention and suppression services across their land in the Santa Monica Mountains.

This relationship is separate from any claim of governmental jurisdiction, and our clarification of the agreement’s nature does not mean that our previous statements about the work being performed were withdrawn.

4. Our Work with LA City Park Rangers

Perhaps the most concerning claims in the article came from LA City Park Rangers leadership, which characterized our work as little more than handing out bottles of water on hot days.

We strongly dispute this characterization.

Our crews operated out of the Hansen Dam Ranger Station, where our fire apparatus was parked permanently in a gated, secured lot throughout our tenure.

Our firefighters were given master keys, gate access, radios, computer access, regular use of ranger dispatch, and 24/7 access to the ranger station.

We attended daily operational briefings at 10:00 AM, including briefings attended remotely by Griffith Park Rangers, where our crews received assignments from ranger personnel.

We were assigned evening shifts, responded to emergencies, assisted with fire prevention and suppression, and worked alongside rangers on incidents throughout the park system.

Why would a crew whose only responsibility was handing out cold water be given keys, radios, dispatch access, night assignments, operational briefings, and permanent apparatus parking?

Our assignments came from the captains, sergeants, and day-to-day rangers with whom we worked.

Whether those assignments were formally approved by senior leadership is unknown to us. However, they were being given, the work was being performed, and leadership was aware of our presence and involvement.

We spent more than 4,000 hours working with the LA City Park Rangers. During that time, not a single concern was expressed to us regarding our direct involvement or responsibilities.

To have those services subsequently reduced to handing out bottles of water is insulting to the firefighters who provided them.

5. Documentation of Our Emergency Operations

KCRW was provided more than 90 emails and photographs documenting our relationships and operational involvement.

Some of these records specifically reference firefighting, emergency medical response, fire extinguishment, arson prevention, criminal suspect information, and emergency assignments.

The article also references documentation showing that we were given access to the Hansen Dam Ranger Station and were described by ranger personnel as additional resources for public safety and emergency medical response.

These records contradict the suggestion that our organization never participated in emergency operations.

We are proud of the work we performed alongside the rangers and have never minimized that work in our meetings with their leadership.

The fact that a formal departmental agreement may not have existed does not erase the assignments we received or the work we performed.

6. Our January 2025 Emergency Response

During the January 2025 wildfires, SCWR crews worked extended shifts supporting emergency operations throughout Los Angeles.

Every shift began with a briefing at the Hansen Dam Ranger Station, where assignments were provided by City Park Rangers. Many of these assignments were given in person, rather than through written orders.

Our crews supported fire patrols, suppression activities, evacuation operations, and other emergency assignments.

The suggestion that the absence of formal written deployment orders means these operations never occurred is contradicted by our documentation and the personnel who worked alongside us.

Our website also contains a detailed account of these operations, including how assignments were received and how our crews worked with other agencies.

7. Claims That Our Statements Were Retracted

KCRW repeatedly characterizes additional context provided by Chief Martin as walking back or retracting earlier claims.

This is false.

Chief Martin has not retracted any previous statement made publicly, to candidates, on our website, or to KCRW.

Clarifying that SCWR’s operations alongside LAFD do not imply LAFD endorsement, command authority, or formal mutual-aid status is not withdrawing our claim that our personnel worked together.

We have consistently maintained that distinction.

8. Statements Made by Outside Experts

Professor Char Miller characterized SCWR as a freelance organization operating outside the established firefighting system and suggested our involvement could interfere with legitimate emergency responders.

These characterizations are false, and we strongly dispute them.

Professor Miller was unfamiliar with SCWR before being contacted by KCRW and had not contacted our organization to ask questions about our operations, credentials, resources, or policies.

SCWR has firefighters, equipment, and operational resources, and works with agencies on tasks assigned to us.

We reject the suggestion that an organization can be accurately characterized in this manner without first understanding how it actually operates.

9. Our Personnel and Organizational History

SCWR has operated in its current general capacity since 2021, originally under the name LAIT911. The change to Southern California Wildfire Response was a name change, not the creation of an entirely new organization or change in responsibility.

All SCWR personnel serve voluntarily. We do not have unpaid employees as described in the article.

Chief Martin has served in multiple leadership positions within the organization throughout his tenure and, as mentioned in KCRW’s article, has received wildland fire training through the Nebraska Forest Service, erroneously referred to as the Nebraska Wildland Fire Academy.

10. Our Position Moving Forward

SCWR maintains a great working relationship with the LA County Community Brigade, an organization specifically referenced by LA City Park Rangers Chief Joe Losorelli in KCRW’s article as an alternative avenue for volunteers interested in firefighting. We remain committed to working alongside other emergency response organizations and agencies that share our mission as well.

We recognize that questions may exist regarding formal agreements, command authority, and agency relationships. Those questions deserve accurate answers.

However, disagreements over formal authorization do not justify denying that our firefighters performed the work they were assigned.

We are not asking for credit for work we did not do. We are asking that the work our firefighters actually performed not be erased or misrepresented.

Our firefighters volunteered their time, responded to emergencies, accepted assignments, and worked alongside public safety personnel because they believed in serving their communities.

We are proud to take credit for the work we have done, and we will not minimize it simply because someone now disputes that it happened.

Should members of the public have any questions or concerns regarding this statement, they are encouraged to contact SCWR directly at [email protected].

All inquiries must be directed through this email address. Phone calls, emails, or other attempts to contact individual SCWR members regarding this matter will not receive a response.

The documentation referenced throughout this statement is available for public review.

Supporting Documentation:

“Fires don’t care about politics, neither do we. We’re not done, not even close.”
– Fire Chief Johnathan Martin (2025)

Southern California Wildfire Response
Office of the Fire Chief

About the Author

Fire Chief Johnathan Martin

Johnathan Martin is the Fire Chief of Southern California Wildfire Response, protecting the Santa Monica Mountains and San Fernando Valley. A third-generation firefighter, he was raised in the fire service. He leads from the front, on call around the clock.

In Response to KCRW’s Reporting on Our Department