During the last three weeks there has been a surprising amount of discussion about increasing the size of wildland fire crews. One national forest is hiring 30-person hotshot crews and 10-person engine crews.
- October, 20, 2021: Tim Swedberg recommended 30-person hotshot crews in an article on Wildfire Today;
- October 27, 2021: In testimony before the House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Natural Resources, Jaelith Hall-Rivera, Deputy Forest Service Chief for State and Private Forestry said, “We need to have larger crew sizes, so that people can take time off so they can rest and have a work/life balance. That’s going to mean we are going to need more firefighters.”
- November 9, 2021: Ms. Hall-Rivera sent a memo to all U.S. Forest Service Regional Foresters directing them to add five firefighters to Interagency Hotshot Crews (IHC) to bring the size up to 25.
However, the effort to increase the size of USFS crews had been seriously discussed earlier. Wildfire Today has learned that the Angeles National Forest (ANF) in Southern California developed a proposal in 2018 for 30-person Interagency Hotshot Crews (IHC). Not only that, but we have obtained two memos written August 12, 2021 by the Fire Chief of the ANF recommending a pilot program for IHCs to be staffed with 30 people and engine crews to have 10.
Below is the ANF memo dated August 12, 2021 about 30-person hotshot crews.
[pdf-embedder url=”https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ANF-IHC-staffing.pdf” title=”30-person Interagency Hotshot Crews”]
And next is the ANF memo dated August 12, 2021 about 9 or 10-person engine crews. (Since then, they have decided on 10-person engine crews.)
[pdf-embedder url=”https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ANF-Engine-Staffing.pdf” title=”ANF Engine Staffing”]
The Angeles National Forest (ANF) is not only proposing larger IHC and engine crews, they are stepping out ahead of the crowd according to a person who prefers not to publicly disclose their identity. In recent weeks they completed hiring to have two 30-person hotshot crews and three 10-person engine crews in 2022. The newly selected personnel (promotions of existing permanent employees) will be effective in January, 2022. The crews will be fully staffed to start annual training in April.
One of the ANF memos states, “Although this [20-person IHC] model was effective for decades the current standard does not provide the depth to meet the higher demands for crew availability to provide employee wellbeing or meet the needs of crew availability across the fire year…This proposed module will increase capacity from 12 pay periods (6 Months) of availability to 18 Pay Periods (9 Months) of availability. This proposal will significantly improve work life balance for Hotshot firefighters… Although the IHC will have a full 3rd squad, the IHC will maintain the current deployment/mobilization standards of 20 personnel. Adherence to the current mobilization standard of 20 personnel will allow for an ongoing rotation for the 3rd module to stand down and remain “local only”. This stand-down period will help to provide ample opportunities for hotshot firefighters to manage annual leave and balance work with time at home. This will also help to provide the workload pacing to sustain a crew for 9 months while better managing the effects of cumulative fatigue and burn out. Finally, it will provide increased capacity for employees to develop for the next level of leadership through single resource assignments.”
Configuration of the 30-person ANF IHC
Two ANF IHCs will each add seven apprentice/Permanent Seasonals working at least 18 pay periods, a third hotshot Captain, a third squad leader, and two senior firefighters.
Configuration of the 10-person ANF Engine Crew
To the standard USFS Region 5 (California) Type 3 engine crew of seven people working five days a week, the upgraded crew will add three positions — a second Engineer, a second Assistant Fire Engine Operator, and a third Senior Firefighter. With the 12 hours per day staffing pattern, which we have been told the ANF has selected, they will work three days one week and four the other, with three days off in a row and four days off in a row during a two-week pay period. All of these staffing patterns call for five on each day.
History of IHC crew size
Since the early 1970s IHCs have been comprised of 20 people, or recently in some cases as many as 22 to help account for attrition, difficulty hiring, personal time off, sickness, and injuries. In 1970 El Cariso Hotshots had 36 people. When the size was reduced the next year, the story we were told was that the Forest Service wanted to use 20-passenger de Havilland Twin Otter aircraft, which began production in 1966, to move crews around. So their decision was to cut the size of the crews to fit that airplane. There may have also been other reasons.
As a crew foreman at the time, I thought 20 people was too many to work together efficiently as one unit to dig line in most fuels, and a 10-person squad was too few. I felt that 13 to 14 crew members was the most efficient size to work together while digging line, which you would have with a 28 to 30-person crew broken into two squads, allowing for the Superintendent and lookouts. Those numbers can change in very light or very heavy fuels.
Whew! I am glad that not to be running a shot crew in this new era, I know all of a sudden I am a old dinosaur, this concept of what a 30 person shot crew looks like today is not what a 30 person crew looked like back in the day, back in the day they had 30 person crews to address line production, back in the day line was constructed with brush hooks, and then chain saw development allowed for saws to be used on the line, so no longer did you need 30 to maintain the same production….just saying…….This my take on our history…..
This idea of adding more and stretching out the availability is somehow going to reduce burnout is ridiculous, when I was a Supt, Captain, Squady, crew member, I looked forward to the end of the season, 6 mo is all I could handle, “barely”.
Bring the crews up to 25, add more crews….well good luck finding folks even with the big pay raise.
All this talk that fire seasons never end is ridiculous ( I may be embellishing here a bit), near as I can tell not much has changed as far as duration, intensity definitely has increased….big time
I would think if you take a crew to 30 then the Supt need to see a big bump in pay……
I am going to venture a guess here and say that 5 yrs from now when all the new changes become the new norm that the feds will still be faced with retention/staffing issues that we see today, money will fix a great many life issues, but it will not fix this.
Some may recall MEL Circa 2000, we added a great many resources and 20+ years later some of the crews are having a difficult time meeting the standards.
What a mess……I say let Cal Fire have all of Calif, they are up to the challenge……I am half way serious….lol….
10 person engine crew, someone will miss a fire right or am I wrong…..
Absolutely on the supt and foremans should see a raise. It’s a little mind boggling that an engine captain who might only have 4-5 people right now is only a single pay grade below a supt. The level of responsibility and what’s asked of them on a continuous basis already makes it so they should be bumped up. If they add this extra responsibility it would be complete bs if they remained 8s and 9s.
Good news, great starting points! But get those GS levels upgraded, get the IHC Sups min GS-10/11, bump up the crew GS’s accordingly! Lowest on the pay line GS-5?
Firefighters complain about low wages and the solution is to cut OT hours by 1/3?
Hope you guys like project work!!
I really hope this new staffing plan works , BUT I was working on a So Cal Forest for 60 day as a Dispatcher in 2021, there was very few days that the Forest with 23 engine could staff ALL Engine ( yes there were issues with Covid and other factors, like 5 day Engine coverage and we all hope that that will end) How ever there was more days that the forest was at draw down due to Single Engine orders and Strike Teams being sent Off Forest, and we still had to UTF orders to help , There was a need to protect the home front and that is the 1st obligation , there were many days when the 3 So Cal Forests sent Engines North to help and Management knew we would go below draw down (We still Fight the on going Fires), we were very lucky that So Cal didn’t have the Big One again ….. This new staffing plan will help, IF we can get the Fire Fighter on the crews ……. GOOD LUCK
If the plan is to rotate out a squad every week or two or whatever, when does overhead get to go home?
How does one go about becoming a hotshot and joining a crew?
Go to USA Jobs, there you can apply for engine, shot, type II, hotshot, helitack crew all over the U.S. Federal fire jobs with all the agencies, U.S.F.S., BLM, NPS, Fish and Wildlife, BIA. If you don’t have any experience yet you most likely will need a season or two on an engine, fuels crew first then get picked up by a shot crew.
That schedule for the engines looks awesome. More pay and more time off means better recruitment and work/life balance. Great job to the Angeles NF
All R5 forests had the opportunity to request to hire above the standard module configuration in the last round of fall fire hire. It just had to be approved by the BOD. Good on the Angeles for getting it done.
Some of those R5 IHC crews ended up with 6 people and were a “local-only module.” In fact, of the R5 50 IHCs, only 31 we’re ever qualified as IHCs…
It’s not about trying to hire more than 20, it’s about keeping the 18 you maybe think you might be able to get
“In fact, of the R5 50 IHCs, only 31 we’re ever qualified as IHCs…”
Curious, is that this season, or _ever_ since the original MEL buildup?
Good on the Angeles for experimenting, it’ll be interesting and educational to see how they get on.
Sorry, the 2021 season.
Some of this reasoning is hard to comprehend.
An engine can only hold so many individuals, so this proposal means an additional “following vehicle.”
“30 person crews” won’t fit in the normal vehicles so that means an additional “following vehicle;” but more importantly, to give the crew some rest, are you going to short the standard 20 person crew (i.e. cut it in half at a time) and what does that mean to “manning up” on the line, and with Planning, where some crews arrive now with various numbers?
Bring on another FULL crew and stop the messing around with each crew, and their corresponding vehicle needs.
Bring on another engine to rotate; buy it; lease it; whatever.
We all know of the crew shortage situation, but stop the nonsense.
OK, start the criticism.
OLDGUY wrote:
As the article says, there will still be five people on duty each day on the Type 3 engines. No additional vehicle will be needed.
And, as the article says about the IHC:
And of course they will need an additional vehicle or two for the new third module. But if new 20-person crews were created they would also need vehicles.
Probably easier to add to existing modules that are already qualified and have leadership that to find new overhead and get them Type 1 qualified…
It seems the real reason is to “sustain a crew for 9 months.” I feel like this would lead to burn out all the same and put more stress on families as the commitment period to be available for assignment at a moment’s notice goes from 6 months of the year to 9 months. I think the better answer would be more crews with a year round stagger.
fantastic! Finally the brass addresses some core deficiencies in staffing. Will it make a difference in the size of wildfires? No, it won’t but it will address some of the deficiencies that ground troops face daily. how many times have the shots been told on campaign fires : your assignment today is to cut down this ridge. Then the assignment the next day is to “cut down the adjacent ridge” And continue ad nauseum. By expanding the manpower of the shots, you empower them. Too often campaign fire are managed by morbidly obese career types without a clue as to the effort required by their demands. Empower the shots!