Experienced and skilled firefighters are the last line of defense against wildland fire, but that line is fraying because the government decided long ago that they’re not worth very much.
Opening with an introduction to smokejumper Ben Elkind and weaving his poignant tale into later parts of this incisive fire story, author Abe Streep presents a feature recently published by ProPublica.
He explains that many firefighters earn the same base pay as fast-food servers while taking severe risks all season long with their physical and mental health. Despite mounting public concern over the increasing severity of fires, the federal government has not seen fit to meaningfully address these issues. The effects of this chronic neglect have become strikingly clear as the fire service finds it difficult to refill its ranks and retain experienced people.
Fighting fire has always been a dangerous occupation, but in the last decade it has become staggering in its demands. Abel Martinez, a USFS engine captain and the NFFE fire chair, told him, “The ship is sinking.”
Streep asked Grant Beebe, a former jumper who now heads the BLM fire program, whether there had been a firefighter exodus. Beebe initially hesitated. “Exodus is a pretty strong word,” he said. But then he reconsidered. “I’ll say yeah. Yeah.”
Although nobody could provide Streep with precise numbers, leaders including Beebe are especially concerned that the attrition has been particularly acute among those with extensive experience — those such as Elkind. It takes years — and hundreds of thousands of dollars — to train a wildland firefighter capable of overseeing the numerous resources — including engines, crews, medical units, helicopters, and smokejumpers — assigned to large fires. As Beebe put it, “You can’t just hire some person off the street into one of our higher-level management jobs.”
And Streep in this feature very clearly understands and explains the bases of the crisis. “More than anything, wildland firefighters are leaving because they’re compensated so poorly, the result of a byzantine civil service structure that makes it extremely hard to sustain a career. The federal fire service is responsible for managing blazes on nearly 730 million acres of land — an area almost the size of India. Among the five agencies, one dominates in terms of influence and size: the Forest Service, which employs more than 11,000 wildland firefighters, most of whom work from roughly April to October. But the hiring system dates to the early years of the agency, when it often recruited from bars and relied on volunteers to suppress wildfires by 10 a.m.”
He adds that the agency acknowledged its attrition problem by effecting a raise from $13 to $15 an hour, created by the Biden administration in 2021.
EVENT:
The Big Burnout: Wildland Firefighters and the West
As record-setting blazes grow more common, poor compensation is spurring an exodus of wildland firefighters, thinning America’s last line of defense against fires. For residents of fire-prone areas, the stakes could not be higher. In partnership with Source New Mexico and Outside Magazine, ProPublica will host an online forum examining these issues.
Speakers include:
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- George Broyles, former wildland firefighter who led the Forest Service’s smoke research program between 2008 and 2014
- Yolanda Cruz, learning hub coordinator at Santa Fe Community Foundation
- Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico reporter and ProPublica Local Reporting Network member
- Antonia Roybal-Mack, attorney and founder and managing partner of Roybal-Mack & Cordova PC
- Abe Streep, journalist and author of the book Brothers on Three: A True Story of Family, Resistance and Hope on a Reservation in Montana
- Kit Rachlis, ProPublica senior editor (moderator)
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