Fighting wildfires was everything to Grant Young.  He started his career with the US Forest Service Fulton Interagency Hotshot Crew and moved to captain an engine in the Sequoia National Forest.  He was hired by Kern County in 1984, which is where he spent the rest of his career.  He was an essential part of their wildland program and helped to create the Blue Mountain Hotshots and the department's Golden Empire hand crew.  He supervised the department's Fire Heavy Equipment Specialist in 2007, equivalent in rank to battalion chief.  He succumbed to job-related cancer in 2009.