September 24, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 166 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Page H4898]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        RECOGNIZING USDA FOREST SERVICE OFFICIAL CHARLES MORTON

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, it is with deep regret that I rise today to 
recognize the lost life of USDA Forest Service official Charles Morton 
who died while fighting the El Dorado fire in the San Bernardino 
National Forest last Thursday in southern California.
  Charlie began his career as a corpsman with the California 
Conservation Corps at the Butte Fire Center in Magalia, California, up 
in my area, where the Camp fire was known to have raged through there 
in 2018. No doubt some of the work that he and his colleagues did in 
the area of Magalia then saved a portion of Magalia in what they did.
  During the 2006 fire season, he worked with Firestorm Wildland Fire 
Suppression in Chico, California. His 14-year forest service culminated 
as a Big Bear, California, Interagency Hot Shot Squad Boss in San 
Bernardino National Forest.
  Charlie's untimely passing is a risk that is, unfortunately, part of 
what our valiant firefighters and forest service workers deal with on 
the front lines every day. I pray that his family will find peace.
  I also pray for the firefighters across the West right now risking it 
all to save our public lands, property, families, and wildlife from 
wildfire season.

                          ____________________