Survey of wildland firefighter spouses finds the job creates stress for the family

The responses from 1,841 were tabulated

Firefighter Bull Complex of fires
Firefighter on the Bull Complex of fires, OR, Sept. 2, 2021, Inciweb.

The Grassroots Wildland Firefighters (GWF) conducted a survey of spouses of wildland firefighters that are connected with the federal government. The 1,841 responses included in the analysis found disturbing trends among the work force that until now may not have been clearly documented.

The primary goal of the survey was to measure the impacts that a career as a federal wildland firefighter (WFF) has on both firefighters and their families. The GWF is asking that the systems of support grow with the demands of the fire seasons.

Here are samples of their findings:

  • About half said they may have considered separating from their partner due to strain on the relationship caused by the job.
  • Only 11 percent often or regularly feel confident if something were to happen to their partner while on duty, they would be taken care of by their federal agency.
  • About 17 percent report partners have been injured at work resulting in a financial hardship.
  • When those in a dual fire career relationship were asked if they’ve left or considered leaving their own fire career due to the difficulty of having children, 79 percent of respondents the questions applied to, reported yes.

Below are documents released today by the GWF.

[pdf-embedder url=”https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GRWFF-Highlights-of-Data-Summar2.pdf” title=”GRWFF Highlights of Data Summar2″]

 

The nine-page document below has detailed findings from the survey. (Look for the down arrow; hover or tap at the bottom to see more.)

 

[pdf-embedder url=”https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/WFF-Partner-Survey-Data-Summary.pdf” title=”WFF Partner Survey Data Summary”]

Typos, let us know HERE, and specify which article. Please read the commenting rules before you post a comment.

Author: Bill Gabbert

After working full time in wildland fire for 33 years, he continues to learn, and strives to be a Student of Fire.

36 thoughts on “Survey of wildland firefighter spouses finds the job creates stress for the family”

  1. Returning from just a couple of weeks on Fire, my wife told me “I’d rather have you than the money.”
    I am grateful for her support. And I am so glad I am no longer with the agency.
    After a couple of months on fire, I would expect psychological injury to be the norm.

    0
    0
  2. Bill,

    Question. Fire Rescue 1 site lists 54 Firefighters have died from Covid this year; does this seem reasonable to you?

    I mean this has to add to the stress on Firefighters, IMO.

    Thanks.

    0
    0
    1. J.

      I have not seen that number, but I assume it refers to all firefighters, not just wildland. But yes, it seems possible since urban firefighters are more often in contact with the public.

      0
      0
  3. A quick search shows the most stressful jobs are: 1. Enlisted Military, 2. Firefighters, 3. Pilots. And, that only Pilots are paid well.

    My Wife fought fires for about 15 years and says it was “great” feeling to actually help people and the land; even with all the bean counters and micro managers from various departments. She says she “loved” the job and she worked for the Forest Service under Department of Agriculture. Oh, but she did NOT like the food aka Meals Ready to Excrete (MRE’s.)

    She NEVER considered herself or the Crews that she worked with as “unskilled labor.” She also thinks that Federal politicians that say they are unskilled labor are “sofa king morons.”

    Important note: We did not get Married until after she resigned from the Forest Service.

    0
    0
  4. Been in fire 15 seasons and suffering separation from seven year dual-fire-career relationship. I am 36 years old with no children, no home, and no savings. The choice to stay in this career has proved costly in ways beyond monetary value. The financial punishment/lack of benefits is the salt in the wound that perpetuates depression amongst Wildland Firefighters.

    0
    0
  5. I was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive type of lymphoma a couple years ago. I joined the Fire Fighter Cancer Association so I could have a mentor. The association pairs you with another firefighter who have a similar cancer to yours. We became close. He was blown away the agency did not pay my medical. I was blown away that his did. Then I learned that EVERY fire fighting agency out there, besides the feds (I am USFS) will pay for their employees who receive cancer, specially blood cancer. We aren’t even educated about cancer in this job.

    0
    0
    1. R5…
      I wish you the best and hope that you can beat your cancer.
      The cancer rate amongst wildland firefighters is appalling.
      It’s WAY past time for the agencies to aknowledge this reality and provide disclosure…mitigation…and treatment.

      0
      0
  6. I have a three concerns about the survey:
    1) I am totally amazed at the number of people who took the survey. Amazing turn out! But, 1,841 out of 30,000 or 60,000 or 90,000 people. Is a small subset. So, from a statical analysis standpoint, I’m not sure GWF got enough response to represent all the spouses. But, with that said, I am impressed with 1,841. Great job!
    2) I agree with many of the comments above and I agree with the results of the survey; however, in short, the survey is biased, because the people who took the survey wanted to take the survey to express the problems with wildland firefighting. So, GWF got the answers they wanted, they expected. This is not a bad thing, but it may not be useful when talking to legislators. In fact, it might back fire when talking to some legislators, because they can say the survey is biased and under-representative, and they would be right. So, to fix this, the agency(ies), a contractor or maybe an credited university, needs to do a broader survey to capture more people. (i.e. How many people are married in NPS, FS, and BLM? How many people are divorced in NPS, FS, and BLM? How many people are single in NPS, FS, and BLM? If you’re married, how has it affected your marriage? If you are divorced or single, is it because of wildland fire? You would also need to capture current and former employees…and that might be difficult and very costly.) This would take a lot more research (to be unbias and representative) and I’m not sure people who work for NPS, FS or BLM want to take another survey or want to give up their private information. Which leads me to my third concern.
    3) Will GFW protect people’s PII who took the survey? For example, if the Forest Service requested (Who am I kidding! Sues for) the data or metadata from the survey will GWF protect the PII of the people who took the survey? The reason I ask is because that information could be used to retaliate against the spouses of the people who took the survey. You know the squeaky wheel and all that!
    Anyway, great job! Peace out!

    0
    0
  7. Land management officials for the USFS and BLM (who have never been a Wildland firefighters – yet hold these roles) – and have no clue how to manage the firefighting workforce should be replaced. Real change needs to happen to help the Federal Wildland firefighters. Policy change is needed or else nothing will change.

    0
    0
  8. 1500 hours of overtime in a 6 month season are increasingly common. A few individuals hit over 1800 in 2020, and I heard at least one had over 2000.
    No amount of family support, extra bonus pay, or sympathetic talk from management prevents mental health issues, stress, or burnout with that many hours/shifts. Mitigation is closing the barn door after the horse escaped. Prevention is a far better solution.
    The time has come to start limiting how many hours/shifts/assignments people are allowed to take.
    Perhaps a tracking system similar to the way pilot flight hours are logged. After x number of OT hours or shifts in a 21 day period, you have mandatory time off. Administrative leave at home, not base hours at work.
    This will cost money and make many people unhappy.
    The seasonal employee wants to make as much money as possible. Mandatory down time while his coworkers are sent to a new assignment is not going to sit well.
    Management is paying salary to an employee and not getting anything in return.
    Dispatchers will have a stack of UTF orders and qualified people are unavailable because they are on mandatory stand down.
    Tough s***. Doing the right thing is seldom cheap or convenient.

    0
    0
  9. If the job is a bad fit for pay, family, mental health etc… maybe its time to stop ignoring or twisting those concerns about those trigger points and go get a different job. It really is that simple. Stop relying on Uncle Sam and whoever the current band of elected misfits are to fix these issues. It dont matter if you are red or blue none of them are fit to run this country or fix your problems. To flip the coin the other way there are about 20k people in this country who should probably be looking for a different job that does not include wildfire. Not because they are bad at their jobs but their job pay and benefits suck and their bosses dont care….Even tho they tell you otherwise.
    To ignore the facts slapping everyone in the face is doing so at your own peril.

    0
    0
  10. It seems to me like one of the first ways to fix a lot of issues is to reduce hours/days worked. I know some will wail in opposition because they love the paycheck from 16s for days on end, and such a change would have to come with an appropriate change in compensation. A person shouldn’t HAVE to work 16s, for days or weeks on end, to pay bills. We all know that the whole 2:1 work rest ratio, just like the mandatory 30 minute meal break, is a joke. In the 80s, a lot of local governments paid out huge settlements for years of back pay for uncompensated meal breaks when courts ruled that LEO, FF, EMS, were never “off duty” for their meal breaks. Same with wildland, yet because it’s the fed gov’t, we can be required to show an uncompensated meal break even while still on duty, in PPE, with our radio on, subject to call. 8 hours of rest? Seriously? It’s 8 hours unpaid, but not truly 8 hours of rest on many incidents, since you are expected to be working until 2200, and AT briefing at 0600 (even earlier for DIVS, Ops, etc, who also often work past 2200). It’s only on paper. And what sleep you get is interrupted by backup beepers, slamming blue-room doors, generators, etc, etc. It’s well known that sleep deprivation is cumulative and leads to both mental and physical health issues, yet it’s a way of life in this business. A busy fire season may see someone working multiple months of 16s with 2 days off every couple weeks. Realistically, if you extend to 21 days plus a couple days of travel on each end, that 2 days off could come once every 3.5 to 4 weeks. That is not physically or mentally healthy at any level, no matter how much you love your work. Want to improve firefighters’ mental and physical well-being? Pay enough to cover bills, and cut work shifts to no more than 12 hours, with REAL time off between shifts, and require real time off between assignments. It might require some operational adjustments, but the health and welfare of our personnel should be reason enough to find a way to make such a change.

    0
    0
  11. I deeply appreciate the work of grassroots. The reality is that we don’t live within an economic environment and culture that supports single career households any longer, this coupled with longer Fire seasons, dramatically increased costs of living, and the federal governments ability to keep up with wages and workforce protections has put an incredible strain on the workforce. I don’t understand the naysayers who work within a crumbling organization facing an enormous and ongoing bought of attrition, budget and workforce cutbacks, failing equipment, and decrepit facilities and defaults to the “always has been, buck up or shut up” argument. Basic human empathy should be a requirement for leadership in this job. If you don’t think fed fire should support a sustainable middle class lifestyle, I don’t want you to be a leader in this industry…and neither does the majority of the incoming workforce.

    0
    0
  12. Look to the State of Victoria in AUS for some insight into how to take care of folks and families, especially in remote duty stations. Their last signed public service agreement has increased family stipends, on call pay, double pay for weekends, and additional annual leave days based on the amount of fireline days someone puts in per month. And now they have presumptive care so you don’t have to try and explain to some pencil pusher in OWCP why 20 years fighting wildland fire led to your knee, neck, elbow, cancer, lung, etc issues. I’m tired of hearing old timers talk about back in the day, if you account for inflation since 2000, you are actually making 15% less in most GS levels despite modest salary bumps.
    Yes there are other ways to make money or do other things, but the heart of this question is what do the citizens of the United States want? A demoralized, piece meal system per agency, that can’t recruit, can’t retain, and literally leads to divorce, suicide, alcoholism with little opportunity for help. Sure we aren’t all staring down the barrel of a gun, at least not at this moment I write this, but you’d have to have your head in the sand or a small fire circle to not personally know or be acquainted with issues caused by this job. At this rate, some western town will call for help and guess what, no one outside of the local volunteers is going to show up. The last few seasons we have inched our way towards this. And our families bare the brunt….

    0
    0
  13. Hi Bill,

    THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! Read the Responses to what YOU researched and then WROTE. YES, the WILDFIRE FIGHTERS and their FAMILIES bear the DANGER (STESS) of THEIR SPOUSES and PARENTS’ WORK, but you have TOLD the WORLD about this NECESSARY OCCUPATION so NO READER can FAIL to NOT UNDERSTAND IT!!!

    IT TAKES GREAT COURAGE TO DO WHAT WE (ON THE SIDELINES) KNOW MUST BE DONE!!! BUT WE ON THE SIDELINES CAN READ HOW THE FAMILIES OF THESE FIGHTERS APPRECIATE WHAT YOU WROTE!!!

    Have a good day, Jerry

    0
    0
  14. Thanks Minny…..
    This survey does not bring to light any thing new, this is just part of the job, do you really expect the govt to step in and fix these issues, money is not going to fix it, I spent 16-17 years of my 38 ye career on shot crews, was it a strain on my family, sure it was and for the most part we managed to make it work. At times we barely made it work, its hard.
    Other professions have to deal with stuff, like the military, LEO, Air Traffic Controllers ER and at least 100 other professions.

    What is the intent of this survey, to illustrate that yes it is a tough job and families are impacted, and are you kidding dual career relationships with kids in fire, that is a recipe for disaster.
    Having a strong support system in place is key, family, co-workers, friends and for some of us Church/faith.
    I have said it many times, it’s a choice I am glad I did it, however given a do over I would have chosen another profession for a great many reasons, it is what is.
    It’s still one of the greatest jobs on the planet, the people make it so.
    Sorry but this survey is over reach and anyone who has done this work for any amount of time already knows this.

    0
    0
    1. I believe the intent of the survey is to provide data to back up anecdotal claims. Instead of saying this job is hard on marriages, we can say 49.3% of survey respondents have considered separating because of this job. This gives validity to the argument. This is how change can happen. I don’t think this survey is for wildland firefighters, we know.

      0
      0
    2. There is so much wrong with this comment. LEOs and air traffic controllers have unions, decent wages, a job they don’t have to reapply for every year, decent retirement, health benefits and most importantly they get to come home to their families every night. And military families may not get that luxury but they have housing, medical, education provided. Wildland firefighters have none of this, its a garbage comparison.

      The idea that wildland firefighter families should shut up and take it, sacrifice so much to the federal government for so little in return is at the heart of the problem. We don’t live in a communist state, if the federal government wants to attract and retain good candidates it needs to compete in the labor market just like everybody else, a currently very tight labor market. It needs to make being away from family for 6 months of every year worth it. And to a lot of good candidates I’ve met, its not worth it.

      0
      0
    3. This survey is a valuable tool when addressing legislators about reforms as well as having the Washington offices of USFS and DOI get a glimpse of what workers deal with.

      As fires get worse every year, and pay has declined dramatically in real terms, it’s hard to hear old folks say they know what it’s like, because they literally do not know what it’s like to be a temp GS4 on a hotshot crew in 2021.

      My military veteran coworkers all think this job is much harder on families than active duty deployments, mostly due to pay and lack of support structure.

      0
      0
  15. I’m having a hard time how anyone can ethically recruit or recommend anyone to take a fire job with the BLM or USFS. How could you?

    Come join us for near or below poverty wages, loss of nearly all social contacts, a divorce, alcoholism, depression and suicidal thoughts… All before you’re 30!

    It’s not a joke, we need help and people need to start hearing the workforce asking for help. It starts with our own leadership in DC and local fire managers, time to step up or let the adults in the room.

    0
    0
    1. Sad but oh so true…20 years in the business.. I used to sell the profession but definitely wouldnt recommend it to my kids, who I missed practically half their life just to put food on the table.

      0
      0
    2. You aren’t there just to make money, you were there because there was something you liked it about the job. Been married 35 years to a Smokejumper, been involved with Smokejumpers since 1980. As my hubby says, there’s a million other ways to make money.

      Maybe my husband moves in different circles, he’s not heard of anyone of his bros, suffering from depression, suicidal thoughts, alcoholism maybe, but no different than any other profession. Divorce, same thing. Plenty of professions weather the storm of separation days, or a few weeks on end. Depends on the person, couple.

      0
      0
      1. Thank you for your highly anecdotal experience.

        The simple fact remains that people need to exchange money for good and services, and this job doesn’t provide enough money to obtain the necessary goods and services.

        Love of the job is fine, but so is supporting a family.

        Maybe your husband needs to listen more, or foster a more open environment for sharing struggles. I know I certainly didn’t want to speak up on the crew where I was called a p***y for getting hurt.

        0
        0
        1. He’s been with fire for 40 years. He’s seen it all. I could’ve said we both agree the pay scale needs to reflect the job, the job on the ground, not the top. I neglected to. There are many problems administratively, we’re back then, that still persist today. Esp for retirement for those who started early on, as seasonals with no benefits.

          0
          0
      2. Interesting Minny, I was just on a fire with a former smokejumper crew supervisor and he nearly ran out of fingers counting all the friends he knew that either died on the job or killed themselves.

        Glad your husband has properly insulated himself from the workforce, apparently.

        0
        0
      3. I believe it’s there but not necessarily viewed as something to talk about. If you have problems .. no you don’t. Which is essentially part of the problem.

        0
        0
      4. Minny- glad you so lucky.

        Look beyond your horizon and you may see something other than you perceive.

        It’s more that just you and yours.

        0
        0
    3. Thank you. Healthy families and individuals need stability for growth. At least compensate our contribution so families succeed. At the very least, give us a platform to build a family….

      0
      0
    4. Yep. Then the families of the wff are left depleated and broke when they are stricken with cancer without even having health insurance much less life insurance. Whenever they are offering three whole dollars and hour to the wff to not request that magical insurance. Most wff have kids. And spouses at home. With the crazy seasons and travel the spouses have hell keeping a job. Especially if they have children with the fathers disabilities.
      This sucks. We lost everything!! Homeless!! This is hell!! Signed / help

      0
      0

Comments are closed.