Ganging Up on Fires : Outdoors: Blacks and Latinos leave street rivalries behind and forge new bonds during a week of U.S. Forest Service training to become part-time firefighters.

Maurice Malone was confident that Los Angeles gang rivalries would not get in the way as blacks and Latinos trained together to fight wildfires in the mountains far from home.

“We leave that in the city,” said Malone, 24, a gang member who is a crew leader for the South Central Panthers, an on-call firefighting unit for the U.S. Forest Service.

“We’re not going to take the fire to the city, so why are we going to bring the city (violence) here?”

With that philosophy in mind, aspiring members of the Panthers, who are black, and the East Los Angeles Aztecs, an on-call unit made up of Latinos, spent a grueling but relatively peaceful week in the mountains.

The five days of training, which were completed Friday afternoon, marked the first time the two crews were together around the clock. The 24 Aztecs and 15 Panthers found themselves studying, eating, showering and sleeping in close quarters as Forest Service officials taught them fundamental firefighting skills by simulating an actual crisis campsite.

The firefighting is a part-time job for the 39 men, many of them gang members or substance abusers trying to get away from the street life.

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Several trainees, their yellow Forest Service shirts and green pants stained with dirt and sweat, said they were far more concerned about ticks, scorpions and rattlesnakes than about rival gangbangers.

“In the streets and in jail is one thing, but here it’s all about teamwork,” said Ernie Lopez, 32, by his own description a gang member with a long prison record, who was training as an Aztec for the first time. “I’ve been through racial trips. That stuff should be left on the streets.”

Officials said the main goal of the week was to begin training the men so they can fight fires without injuring themselves or others. But a side benefit, they said, may be the camaraderie between the two crews which, even if only slight at first, may someday save a second in reaction time during a wildfire or prevent a gang blowout on the streets.

Fire Capt. Mark Glos, the Forest Service official who coordinated the training, said the two crews--recruited from different communities--were designed to exist separately, but must be able to work together during a fire or some other disaster, such as an earthquake.

“The main goal I keep stressing here is teamwork,” Glos said. “I’m not treating anyone any different. If I’m going up there (to a fire site), I want them to save my back.”

That also means helping the trainees, many of them raised in the barrios or ghettos of the city, feel comfortable in the cloud-level elevations of the forest about 45 miles north of Los Angeles, near Mt. Wilson. The days included three- to five-mile hikes carrying equipment and food.

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Despite some grumbling, the crew members consider the part-time jobs a good deal while they search for full-time work. All except alternates are paid for training and may earn between $8 and $12 per hour with the Forest Service, depending on their experience and responsibilities.

The jobs keep the crew members busy throughout the region’s busiest fire season, which begins in early summer and runs through the fall. The biggest knocks against the jobs, which take the men throughout California and elsewhere, are that crew members must leave at a moment’s notice to spend up to three weeks away from home.

The Panthers crew, sponsored by the Los Angeles Unemployed Council and the Nigrition Community Resources Center, is entering its third year. The Aztecs, sponsored by the Padrinos volunteer group, are beginning their second year.

Although there were a few testy words exchanged, such as when a crew leader prodded a trainee to hurry up, the participants said they were too busy to waste time with gang beefs.

Besides, most fear being suspended or losing their jobs.

“I think this is where I want to go with my career,” said Juan Ruvalcaba, 22, a former gang member from Boyle Heights.

Jeffery Williams, 28, of Baldwin Hills, who is entering his third year as a Panther, said ethnic tension is barely a concern. The more serious problem is when inexperienced members ignore the guidance of others, he said.

“My job was to come up here and help train these brothers,” said Williams, a crew leader. “One lagger messes it up for everybody.”