La Plata County’s beautiful landscapes lend themselves to a number of emergencies that impact locals and visitors alike. Helping people prepare or prevent those circumstances—and to act when the unthinkable happens—is the latest chapter of Shawna Legarza’s storied career.
“We take care of you before, during, and after an emergency happens,” said Legarza, director of emergency management for La Plata County.
Legarza has dedicated her life to handling emergencies. She started working on a fire crew to pay for college and eventually became a wildland firefighter in Alaska. “There were not many female firefighters in the hotshot world when I started,” she said. “You could probably count them on your hands and toes.”
In September 2001, Legarza worked a month of night shifts at Ground Zero, helping with recovery efforts at the World Trade Center. As part of the incident management team, she briefed the New York Fire Department, the New York Police Department, and other organizations. Legarza met her future husband, a fellow firefighter, during this short stint.
When she learned of a new hotshot crew being assembled in Durango, “I was like, ‘Where’s that?’” Legarza recalled. She loaded her dog and cat in her truck and drove down the Alaskan highway to take on the role of the first crew superintendent of the San Juan Hotshots the same season the Missionary Ridge Fire flared up. Legarza loved the work and felt like she had found her forever home.
But life had other plans. In 2008, Legarza’s husband died by suicide. She took some time off, dove deep into suicide survivor resources, and eventually started the Wildland Firefighter Foundation’s “Life Challenge Program” to take care of employees. Then she got back to work.
Beginning in 2016, Legarza served as the national director of fire and aviation for the U.S. Department of Agriculture based in Washington, DC, until her retirement in 2020. The La Plata County director of emergency management position opened, and Legarza thought, “Boy, I bet I could do that job.”
Boy, is she right.
Four years in, Legarza sees no end in sight. “I’ll be working in emergency management in Durango and La Plata for a long time because I love it,” she said. “I’m like a library, and I want to help other people be more prepared.”
Legarza encourages locals and visitors to acquaint themselves with emergency preparedness in La Plata County by visiting lpcfireprepared.org.
