Forest Fire Crew Goes to...Brooklyn?

The Cherokee Hotshots, based in the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee, are one of many interagency forestry crews that travel around the country pitching in where needed, usually to fight forest fires. So how did they end up in Brooklyn and Queens, New York, this week?

The answer lies in the two tornadoes that struck in the boroughs last week, toppling trees and leaving piles of debris in Prospect Park. After the storms, the New York Times reports, officials at the U.S. Forest Service recommended that New York City's parks department bring in the crews to help with cleanup efforts. So the Cherokee Hotshots made their way north from Alabama, where they had spent a week battling a fire, for their first-ever service in an urban setting.