Brent Witham

The San Bernardino County Community yesterday paid its last respects to Brent Witham, the Redlands East Valley High School graduate who took up the career of working to combat wildland fires and died in the full bloom of his intensity while carrying out one of his intrepid missions.
Witham, 29, was one of 2,260 hotshot crew members in the United States. Hotshotters hike, ride or parachute into remote areas at the periphery of a conflagration, carrying equipment with which they attempt to create fire-
breaks to arrest the advancement of flames. It is an extremely dangerous and physically demanding assignment that requires intense and exhausting physical training.
Witham was killed on August 2 while the crew he was with, the Vista Grande Hotshots, based in Idyllwild were engaged in suppressing the Lolo Peak Fire, burning in the Lolo National Forest in western Montana. Witham’s end came when he was crushed by a falling tree.
“Our hearts go out to Brent’s family, friends, fellow Vista Grande Hotshots, the Forest Service, and the entire wildland fire community,” said San Bernardino National Forest Supervisor Jody Noiron. “Brent was a hardworking professional, who was eager to learn and be the best that he could be. He will be missed by all he touched.”
U.S. Forest Service Chief Thomas Tidwell said “My heart and thoughts go out to his family, crew and friends today, and I ask you to keep his family and friends in your thoughts as well.”
Witham began his firefighting career in 2011 as a member of the Tahquitz hand crew, based in Riverside, according to a spokeswoman with the San Bernardino National Forest. In 2013, he became a firefighter assigned to Engine-56. In 2015, he upped the ante, becoming a member San Bernardino National Forest’s Vista Grande Hotshots. Most recently he was assigned to the Vista Grande base in Idyllwild near Mt. San Jacinto in Riverside County.
After his death, as his remains were being transported to the Missoula Airport, from whence to be flown to California, several hundred people we’re on hand as his flag-draped coffin arrived and was loaded into an airplane.
At the National Orange Show in San Bernardino on Thursday, several hundred firefighters and other mourners packed the auditorium there for a public memorial service. He was lionized as a courageous firefighter who gave everything for his chosen profession.
His sister Jannell Giordano told the firefighting community that had assembled there that “You were a second family to him,” saying her brother was a “Teddy bear” of man she admired and looked up to.
A spokesman for the Witham family said, “We are overwhelmed by the outpouring of care and support that family, friends and community members have expressed regarding Brent’s recent passing. His death was a terrible shock to all of us and we are still navigating through the disbelief. It helps to know how many lives Brent touched with his great sense of humor and ability to make others laugh, his way of turning people’s weaknesses into strength, and his overall love for life.”