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Gangs Lay Aside Differences, Pick Up Firefighting Tools Los Angeles Sentinel; 11/10/1993; Marsha Mitchell Los Angeles Sentinel 11-10-1993 Gangs Lay Aside Differences, Pick Up Firefighting Tools. SIERRA MADRE, Calif--On the steep, brush-covered slopes of the San Gabriel Mountains, the blue of the Crips and the red of the Bloods were joined in a painted band on the tools of a unique team of firefighters. "It shows our bond of unity," Morrise White said of the two stripes on the handle of his tool, a combination rake and hoe. "Out here, we are all brothers." The 24-year-old member of the Four-Tray Crips took his place in the hot dust last Thursday beside members of the rival Bloods and other gangs to dig a 2-foot-wide fire line. Usually, red and blue mark the differences between the gangs and fighting can erupt if the wrong color is flashed at a rival member. Gang members, former members and their neighbors formed a U.S. Forest Service crew called the South Central Panthers. Founded in June to bring racial diversity to the Forest Service and opportunity to the inner city, the crew of about 20 has fought fires all over Southern California, said Mark Glos, an Angeles National Forest supervisor. When fire inches down the slopes last Thursday over the route of the Rose Festival Parade in Pasadena, the Panthers were dispatched to stop it before it reached the homes below. In the Forest Service's fireproof yellow shirts, green pants, hardhats and high leather boots, the Panthers lined up to get their tools. Two flashed gang hand symbols and banged their fists against the other's. Others raised their fist in acknowledgment of the call for unity before the crew filed up the Little Santa Anita Canyon to fight the fire. "All right, South Central No. 1, baby," yelled Jeffrey Williams, 26, a former member of the Black Peestone Bloods. Williams was arrested for looting on the first day of the riots. He spent 30 days in jail, though he denies stealing anything. Resolved to change his life in some way, he joined the Panthers. "Now a lot of young brothers ask me how they can do it, too," Williams said. Helicopters roared overhead, sounding sirens before moving in close to drop fire-retardant foam on the flames as the Panthers dug their line through scrub oak, mountain mahogany, yucca, and buckwheat. "We're more into each one helping one another instead of gang violence," said Andre Rainey, 31, a former member of the PJ Watts Crips. "If I'd known about this when I was 18 or 19, I'd have eight or nine years in by now," said Wallace Bedford, 27, who represents the Crips. "I get to do things like hiking and camping that I've never done before." Some firefighters were skeptical at first, "But by the time we're done working, they say we're a hell of a crew," said Glos, the supervisor. It's not strange for gang members to join a good cause, said White, who wears 13 gold and diamond studs in his ears, nose and eyebrows. "A gang is not just a negative word," he said as he dug a foothold on the steep fire trail. "We are family and friends who grew up together ... In a certain sense, this [the fire crew] could be called a gang." News Topics | Home | Research | History | Blood Gangs | Crip Gangs | People| Life in a Gang | Gallery | Iraqi Cards | Memorial | Migration | Graffiti | Resume| Injunctions Homicides | Maps | California Prisons | Contact

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