Firefighters from the Navajo Nation worked tirelessly through a haze of dust to cut away dirt from a narrow road at the side of a mountain struck by a landslide in Southern California, coughing and sneezing amid the backbreaking work.
It was the Navajo Scouts’ eighth straight day battling the Eaton Fire outside Los Angeles and their assignment Friday morning was two-fold: restore vehicle access to the mountain on the outskirts of Altadena and check on the fire damage to structures at the top.
The team of 23 crew members had traveled for two days to Southern California from the Navajo Scouts’ headquarters along the Arizona-New Mexico state line at Fort Defiance to join the fight against wildfires that have killed at least 27 people, destroyed more than 12,000 structures and put more than 80,000 under evacuation orders. The crew is one of several firefighting teams from Native American tribes and the Bureau of Indian Affairs battling the blazes…