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SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The Warm Springs Hotshots are an elite firefighting crew based in north-central Oregon. The crew is also one of only seven Hotshot crews based on a Native American reservation and overseen by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. And it's one of only four administered directly by a Native American tribe.
Hotshots earn the designation by passing extra physical tests and undergoing training in specialties like fire behavior.
Crews consist of around 20 members each. They carry out surgical first strikes and help tackle large, well-established blazes.
Most Warm Springs Hotshots live on the sparsely populated Warm Springs Indian Reservation and belong to one of the three Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.
The Hotshots say they have a unique connection to the community but had to overcome tensions elsewhere in the crew's early years.
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