Our handcrews are seasonal crews that expand up to 60 members each year. The handcrews serve the community by providing the hard work required to meet our hazardous fuels reduction programs to reduce the wildfire threat in our community. They also respond to wildfires in our community and adjacent communities in the Lake Tahoe Basin and states of Nevada and California. Our entire fuels program is managed by Division Chief, Norb Szczurek.

In 1999, because of a growing awareness of the increased risks from wild land fires to the homes because of unnatural fuel accumulations, the North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District established a six person hand crew. This crew, named the Slide Mountain Hand Crew, was created to conduct all aspects of fuels management activities in the Incline Village and Crystal Bay areas that would reduce the risks from wildfire, especially near the homes in the area. It was also intended to function as an initial and extended-attack fire suppression crew.

Since its inception in 1999, the Slide Mountain Hand Crew has grown from 6 members to 60 members and three crews. The crews have proven to be highly effective tool in reducing hazardous fuels, and have become highly visible representatives of the NLTFPD, working on a daily basis from the spring through the winter.

Another service the handcrews provide is Curbside Chippping. To request this service please call our Defensible Space/Chipping Request phone line at 831-0351, ext. 8118. Please leave your name, address and phone number and specify "chipping service". Please note the following guidelines when requesting this service: Pile must be curbside and easily accessible; limbs no larger than six inches in diameter; content of pile must not contain stumps, roots, garbage, nails or lumber; and pile cannot exceed 10' x 10' x 10'. Please note the crew does not haul away chips, but broadcasts them back in to property. Chips can be dispersed around property for landscaping or erosion control, but not within 30 feet of structure.