There have been articles published in recent months describing the working conditions, miserable pay, and dangers to the mental and physical heath of federal wildland firefighters. Some of the attention is due to the efforts of the Grassroots Wildland Firefighters who have been reaching out to politicians and the media.
The fact that hundreds of federal firefighter positions are vacant across the nation is a product of the inability to compete in the job market with public and private organizations that actually pay their employees a living wage without requiring them to be away from home for up to 120 days each year. It is a complex subject that few understand and is difficult to summarize quickly.
The best article I have read that describes the plight of federal firefighters was published this week in Grist by Zora Thomas. I implore you to read it and pass it along to someone who NEEDS to understand. It also has excellent photos taken by Ms. Thomas and other firefighters.
Below is an excerpt — how the article ends.
…The day after the blowout on the Bear Fire, one of our leads was hit by the top of a tree. He was on his own, down in a steep drainage, orchestrating a handful of helicopters to cool down a leading edge of the fire and give the rest of us time to prepare a road to burn off. He didn’t see the dead top of the tree, or hear it fall. He’s lucky to be alive.
The piece that hit him was large enough to be fatal, but decomposed enough to break on impact. It smashed him down the steep hill he was working on, filling pockets on his pack with rot and woodchips. He’s been in wildland fire for most of his adult life and has had plenty of close calls, but this one was enough to make him call his mom, just to say hi.
On our way back to camp that evening, after he hiked out of the ravine and rejoined the crew, he mentioned the incident so casually that it took me a moment to register what he was saying. Tree strikes are killers, the stuff of nightmares, and he spoke with the blasé manner of someone describing how he’d been cut off in traffic.
As he told the story, we laughed and joked, glad he was OK. But the exchange left me sobered and bewildered. After a decade of experience, the accumulation of innumerable specialized skills, and the consistent risk of his life and his health, he still only merits the title of “forestry technician,” and an hourly pay rate comparable to a senior barista at my local Starbucks. There’s a damaging disconnect between the lionized figure of the firefighter and the reality of the men and women who fight more fire than anyone.
The sub-headline is a quote from Ms. Thomas’ article.
