As a 16-year-old junior firefighter, Larry Crabtree rode in the back of fire engines, and decades later he led more than a week of daily meetings in a community full of fear and concern as the massive 2013 Rim Fire blew up and threatened the entire Highway 108 corridor.
Now the the 63-year-old chief for the Mi-Wuk Sugar Pine Fire Protection District with more than 45 years in firefighting, Crabtree announced this week he is going to retire. He will continue in the position of chief until May 1, 2018.
He said he lived in a small town called Upper Lake in Lake County as a teen.