As the western states were entering the busiest part of the wildland fire year in 2021 a U.S. Forest Service document written June 22 said that of the approximately 110 Federal hotshot crews, 25 percent, or about 27 crews, were not able to meet the required standards due to vacant positions. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that last year dozens of wildland fire engines across the state sat idle and others had to cut back to only five days a week because of a shortage of firefighters.
There are indications that the 2022 fire year could see even worse staffing shortages according to an article in Politico:
In an email obtained by POLITICO, Forest Service officials are already warning employees in California that there have been 50 percent fewer applications submitted for GS3 through GS9 firefighting positions this year compared to last. And regional Forest Service officials from across the Western fire regions reported struggling with low staffing on a Feb. 15 call with Fire and Aviation Management, the minutes of which were obtained by POLITICO. “Hiring frenzy – lack of candidates, unable to staff 7 days in many places. Continued decline of folks to do the work,” the minutes read, describing comments made by Regional Fire Director Alex Robertson.
The five federal agencies that have significant wildland fire programs have a total of about 15,000 positions related to fire. In the last few years the number of vacancies has been growing due to difficulty in hiring and experienced firefighters leaving the organization for better pay and working conditions.
Legislation pending before Congress, the Tim Hart Wildland Firefighter Classification and Pay Parity Act (H.R. 5631), could make a difference. It would address many of the heartbreaking issues wildland firefighters and their partners face, including raising firefighter pay, creating a wildland firefighter job series, providing health care and mental health services to temporary and permanent wildland firefighters, housing stipends, and other improvements. (More details are in the Wildfire Today article from October 19, 2021.)
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Tom.
Target is now hiring at $24/hr…starting. Why the f—- would anyone put up with the FS for a GS-3,4 or 5 when Target is hiring GS-8 right out of high school?????
To work out doors, paid to: learn a new skill, go hiking, work out, perform a variety of natural resource projects, go to a fire, go camping, occasionally stay in a motel, have your winters off if you want (to go to someplace warm, or go work at a ski resort), work with good, like-minded people, get to ride in a fire engine or helicopter (worth it right there). I get it, the pay sucks, but A LOT of people do this work for other than the money. You don’t have to stay with it if it’s not for you, and you want to stand in a box store dealing with disgruntled shoppers all day for a few more bucks. Quit bitching and go do something else then…
I already asked my mortgage lender if they accept payment in “helicopter rides” and they said they only accept money. My day care provider said she would accept “fire engine rides” occasionally though, so that’s good news.
That’s for the motivation, retired guy! I think we’ll all just collectively suck it up, and maybe the grocery store will start accepting “sunsets” at the register, and we can fill our gas tanks with “having a good time at work.”
Sorry we are trying to make more money. People are quitting/not sticking with the field actually. Thats what most of this article is about. I am glad you’re retired we don’t need anyone managed by someone with this type of attitude, it’s actually a reason for the staffing issue as well. Enjoy yelling at clouds in retirement.
Just wait until 2026 when many of us 2001 MEL hires retire with 25 years of federal service.
Perfect alignment with the end of the so called “Infrastructure” money running dry.
Big Fire Ball$, (Nice to meet you, my nickname in real life is Fireball) I think it’s funny that you think you’re going to be allowed to retire. I have had a lot, I mean, a lot of calls from people who were fired right before they retire. Which is totally illegal, but the FS does it because EEOC and MSPB are completely broken.
That’s one of many reasons I left that circus years ago.
Sad that it got to this. It didn’t happen overnight. The Feds sat back and refused to make changes year after year as State, County, and City Departments moved ahead on all fronts that matter to young men and women hoping to raise a family in a rewarding career.
I’m a Virginia wildland firefighter (VA-FF 1/FFT2) and have passed the arduous pack test and am willing to go out west this year. Can you send me in the right direction to get on a crew a.s.a.p.? Again, I have basic qualifications to be on a handcrew.
Thanks in advance.
Go join CA Fire 3rd largest fire dept in the US. They will teach you how to fight real wild fires. In the winter join a County Sta. That’s under Cal. Fire. Good Luck Be Safe
Ret.Capt. Jack
The gap in pay is just the beginning, no significant pay raises during 3 Presidential terms equaled 12 years, that gap alone would take over 60 years to catch up. On top of that, no TOS “Transfer of Station”, lack of government housing and increased barracks rates over those same years took firefighters back exponentially. It’s called “Simple” math for a reason.
Kinda hard to recruit when as already stated the hiring system and process is broken. Not to mention that we’re unable to compete with warehouses, manufacturing and construction jobs that pay more, year round, better benefits, and you’re home every night and have weekends off. Whether its generational or not the agencies need to catch up…sunsets and adventure aren’t selling anymore. All we’ve been getting in the apps are Ricky Rescues, not suitable candidates, and those few quality candidates we get usually find something better after a year….
Its not like this is unique to the FS. The fire department my brother works for is down 11 people. A full shift is 16. They take recruit constantly and get no applicants. Looking at other cities they are having the same problem. When I hired in back in 05 places had their pick. They could be choosy and take the best applicants. Now they are doing everything they can just to put warm butts in the seats. Firefighting no longer has the allure. My brother’s department has lost employees to pet food plants, rock quarries, the local university help desk, etc. A few went to other agencies, but most just left it altogether.
I’m gonna try to stay calm as I write this post. I check USAJobs every day. I have applied for 1000’s of jobs in the last year. (Yes, I get it…They don’t want me…Give up!…I’ve heard it all…but I’m in my 40’s and I’m a long way from retirement.) The crazy thing I have noticed lately is that the positions are posted at lower pay grades than say a year ago. And I get it, the NPS and the FS budgets have been cut and I’m not even going to talk about fire borrowing, because that’s a thing of the past, but I am going to talk about how the NPS/FS post positions and qualifications. I wish the NPS/FS would wake up and realize, WE KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!!! It is stupid!!! It is illegal!!! STOP IT NOW!!! 1) NPS/FS are posting positions at higher qual levels than the GS level requires (i.e. GS-12 work at a GS-4 pay). This is not in-line with OPM. (And in my opinion is ILLEGAL!!!) 2) NPS/FS post positions that are local, but no one who lives in the area is qualified for the positions. So, they post it internal, but don’t provide TOS (or PCS), so why would someone want to relocate if they have to pay out of pocket. I get that might upset some of you and it should. Why pay some people TOS and not pay others? (Short answer: To shaft you!!! Long answer: Because they can!!!) The other thought here is if you don’t get TOS and it cost you say $23,000 to move, but the raise you get is only $5,000/yr, why would you take the job? (Just to upset some of you…Did you know that the NPS/FS will buy houses of higher ups when they relocate if they can’t sell them.) 3) The VET problem. I love VETs!!! I come from a military family…I worked for the military, but the NPS/FS VET program is harming more vets than helping. The program was supposed to help Vietnam vet during a time when people spat on the returning solders. These soldiers have retired. The new vets are from the Afgan war and yes, we should support our troops, but they are not hated, no one is stopping them from getting a job. The problem with the program is that discriminates. (Before the end of the Afgan war, 20% of the military were women, now less than 5% are women.) When a vet or a spouse of a vet applies the rules of hiring change. (They don’t have to go to Best Qualified. Which sometime leads people getting jobs that they are not qualified for. This is not good for the vet, spouse or for the agency.) It sucks and people need to understand…If the NPS/FS doesn’t want to hire a vet or a spouse of a vet they just scrub the position. This is risky…The process takes time and the hiring manager might lose the position all together. 4) Quals!!! This is what I really want to talk about! So, back in 2018 many people were fired under the new EO rules (some say to shut men/women up who were complaining about the hostile work environment, others say it was budget cuts, who knows!…that’s for the courts to decide!) These people were basically your middle management and your support staff. (And y’all are wondering why things aren’t getting done!) And now the NPS/FS has a big problem how to hire people with 30 years experience when they have not been able to retain their quals. So, you see these posting with long list of quals, but no one can qualify, because those classes were not available during COVID. I hear this complaint all the time…a lot of people call me and say they applied for this or that job, they are qualified, but they know that they will not qualify (Stupid AI!), because they lost their quals. So, my advise to the NPS/FS is before you post a position on USAJobs, please read it. See if you would qualify for the position, if not, change the position so that you can hire qualified people. Maybe you could do the same for the people that you are hiring that you are doing for the people who work for your agency. Yeah, you know what I’m about to say…issue red cards for people who haven’t even taken the required classes. Come on guys, this has bitten you in the butt for years. Every time some one dies you look and find out that 1/2 your guys (I say guys, because you fired most the women!) haven’t taken the classes they need to do the job. I know, because I use to teach those classes and yeah, I could teach the class, but f* it if I could go to those same classes. (Ok, I said I would stay calm.) Look, we know what’s going on!!! Jessie Standridge and Mark Greene are NOT HIRING minorities (black men, women of all races (especially if you are pregnant!), and the LGBTQ). In fact, they are still firing minorities! This is ILLEGAL under CIVIL RIGHTS – Title VII!!! FIRE Jessie Standridge and Mark Greene!!! ASC is a failure!!! Reorg the NPS/FS!!! And if you can’t do that then yes, I say create a National Fire Department. Pay your people year-round with benefits. No more volunteers. A day’s pay for a day’s work. Hire a diverse workforce. Oh, and NPS stop asking people if they are women are trans in your interviews…it’s disrespectful and no one know how to answer that question, oh and I’m pretty sure that’s ILLEGAL too! Stop asking women how they will make your team more diverse, when your team is made up of only white men! And stop saying you are a family organization, when you don’t hire the women your firefighters get pregnant!!! In fact you fire women who are pregnant! Wake up NPS/FS WE KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. IT”S ILLEGAL AND WE ARE NOT GOING TO GIVE UP!!!
The organizations want to recruit adults aged 18-26 to fill the majority of positions. I read an email put out by OPM that after they conducted a survey of folks in fire last year, the average age is 30 years old. The agencies are not doing much to recruit these age brackets of folks it seems. No incentive to help with housing, student loans, etc. Anyone interested in these jobs just has to do a quick google search to see that everyone is leaving and burnt out, that’s the majority of articles put out in the last few years. Hotter, longer fire seasons are wearing folks out, not to mention having to deal with stress back home, young families, being states away from their friends and family. We need to revamp the recruitment portion and seriously take a look at redoing hiring. Centralized thru ABQ hasn’t been working and is definitely still not working. Let high school students who are over 18 or just recently graduated, come down to the districts near their homes and interview. Telling them they have to wait for a random week in august/September/October to frantically attempt to navigate the madness that is USAJobs staffing process, only to wait 6 months to even hear back if they got an offer is insane. Expecting these young folks to sit around and wait for almost a year after graduation to come to work isn’t doing it. The system is broken.
Lack of Pay lack of benefits on the fed side not to mention HR for the Forest service is an Absolute joke!! using Albuquerque for everything HR was one of the biggest mistakes the FS has ever made and they will never admit it
Can confirm. Decades of low pay, long hours, arduous work and a steady whittling away of available housing has almost zeroed out the 3/4/5 lists. Combine that with the sheer stupidity of trying to hire seasonal employees 7 months before their anticipated start date, while those candidates are still in the current fire season (late August/early September applications and Early October interest and availability calls? Yes, I’m looking at YOU, Region 3.) and we are experiencing “indications that filling wildland firefighter positions” are difficult.
positions everywhere are hard to fill, it may be the new norm, where are folks getting the resources to survive???????
Very curious times indeed, I believe the new age of social media may in part be a contributing factor, most people no longer enjoy the out of doors, we are entertained with smart phones….Our FF’s come from those that love the great outdoors…….check this out https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2020/01/study-says-barely-half-americans-get-outside-recreation
Here’s another one….https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/20/6-reasons-why-americans-arent-returning-to-work.html
FF jobs have always been a little difficult to fill with quality folks, good pay or not……
Working too hard for too little. Its not at all hard to understand.
McDonald’s pays more and lets you sleep in your own bed at night.
You sound like an out of touch boomer, blaming smart phones. What a crock…