Fishing tournament to raise funds for firefighters

LONG BEACH ― As the season for wildfires is here, an upcoming fishing tournament honors one young fallen firefighter. The 4th annual Kevin Woyjeck Memorial Saltwater Fishing Tournament is scheduled for Sept. 1. Kevin Woyjeck joined the Los Angeles County Fire Department Explorer Program at 15. He then went on to various fire academies and wildland firefighting training programs. “When he wasn’t fighting fires, he was fishing,” his aunt, Kathy Munshi, said. Kevin Woyjeck grew up in Seal Beach and worked as a deckhand on fishing charters out of Long Beach, according to Munshi. He was always eyeing bodies of water as a kid asking if fish were in there, his father said. Kevin Woyjeck was the eighth firefighter in the Woyjeck family. His father, Joe Woyjeck, recently retired after nearly 37 years as a Los Angeles County Fire Department captain. Kevin Woyjeck, along with a crew of Granite Mountain Hotshots, died June 30, 2013 while battling a wildfire in Arizona; he was 21. Kevin Woyjeck’s parents, Anna and Joe, started an “Explorers for Life” association and a saltwater fishing tournament to honor the former firefighter’s life and passion for fishing. Funds raised from the Kevin Woyjeck Memorial Saltwater Fishing Tournament will benefit Kevin Woyjeck’s Explorers for Life Association,...