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Currently, across Colorado, more than a thousand federal firefighters are working to contain fires that burn through tens of thousands of acres of scrub, grass, and wood.
None of the forest workers fighting these fires is actually considered a firefighter – on paper. Your job titles are forest or range technicians.
Most of these firefighters are temporary workers who only work during the summer. Your starting salary is around $ 13 an hour, much less than a local, state, or private fire department.
Just as climate change is prolonging the fire season – with more intense flames – the fire brigade is confronted with a lack of personnel and low morale. These problems have been around for years, but there is some momentum to raise wages and make other changes to address the shortage.
“It’s just a convenient, bureaucratic detour just to call us forest technicians so they don’t have to give us the same benefits,” said Chris Ives, a squad leader of a hot-shot crew in the San Juan National Forest near Durango, southwest Colorado .
This is Ives’ 10th season with the Forest Service. It was six years before he got a permanent job that came with year-round health insurance. Despite not wearing the label and pay of a firefighter, Ives spends an estimated 80% of his time fighting fires or doing tasks directly related to fire fighting.
President Joe Biden has called federal fire department pay “ridiculously low” and promised to increase it. But some say it is still too low.
At a video meeting with governors on June 30, he said the US was late for the game and needs to act quickly.
“We remember the terrible scenes from last year,” he said. “Orange sky that looked like the end of days. Smoke and ash that made it dangerous to breathe the air. More than 10 million acres burned. “
The Biden government announced it would use bonuses and incentives to raise firefighters’ pay to at least $ 15 an hour. Administration officials say they will also allow seasonal workers to work longer hours and train and equip more federal and military personnel to accommodate overcapacity when needed.
Biden also promised to work with lawmakers to create a permanent federal fire department.
Some firefighters say $ 15 an hour is still too low. Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, an advocacy group representing federal firefighters, said the steps are a good first step but they want lawmakers to make long-term fixes.
CPR News spoke to half a dozen U.S. forest service workers like Ives who helped fight some of the largest and most dangerous fires in the country.
They say low wages and other work problems have led to staff shortages in Colorado and other wildfire-prone states like California, Oregon, and Washington. A search on USA Jobs, the federal government’s premier job board, regularly reveals approximately 150 forest and pasture technician job openings across the country.
The shortage leaves the firefighters exhausted and their mental health suffering.
Ives said the gaps need to be filled by existing forest workers who feel exhausted and overwhelmed. The additional stress puts a strain on their mental health and personal life.
“Not being able to not take your time unless it’s a funeral or a wedding, and it just gets a little more stressful and stressful on your psyche every year,” he said.
Many local and state fire departments have mental health programs that are specifically tailored to the pressures of a career in the fire department. The Forest Service didn’t, said Ben Elkind, an Oregon-based smoke jumper.
“They have real trauma and they are not addressing it in a meaningful way,” he said.
Forest service officials declined an interview request. In a written statement, a spokesman said the service had a “robust and highly skilled workforce,” but acknowledged that uncompetitive federal wages have resulted in high turnover and low recruitment.
Firefighters say low wages are made worse by high housing costs in fire-prone areas where they are often stationed.
These include tourist spots and vacation spots near National Forests with million dollar homes.
“I would say maybe a quarter of our crew lives on the back of their trucks or camps outside,” said Ives.
Ben McClane, who heads a forest fire crew in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in southwest Washington, said firefighters who don’t camp or make a living from their vehicles often find shelter in other residents’ basements.
“It’s almost like hoping for charity from the local community,” said McClane.
All of the firefighters CPR News spoke to said similar things. Most had spent time living in their cars or trucks. A woman who worked for the U.S. Forest Service in southwest Colorado, who refused to give her name for fear of upsetting her superiors, said she lived in an isolated shed because it was the only shelter they could afford can.
Stephen Pyne, a former wildland firefighter who teaches courses in fire and fire history at Arizona State University, said the Forest Service has been struggling with staffing for what was once seasonal employment.
“They didn’t want to hire full-time workers and only wanted them when they needed them,” he said.
Today, the U.S. forest fire season lasts almost a year. Pyne said it was like the federal government was going to fight the fires in 2021 with a 1951 setting.
He says the forest service and other state agencies in other sectors face many of the same labor law challenges.
“It’s the gig economy,” he said. “There are people who work for relatively low wages, who work seasonally, and for many of them have very little careers. That sounds like a lot of dissatisfied workers in today’s economy. “
Many people whose lives and property are in danger rely on the Federal Fire Brigade.
David Schulman has lived in a wooded area near Vail and Eagle, Colorado for 20 years. One weekday, he and a friend were fixing a gate in front of his ranch. It was one of the last houses accessible before emergency vehicles blocked the road because the Sylvan fire was burning in the woods near his ranch.
Schulman’s experience could be a sign of the increased need for firefighters in times of climate change.
“None of this is new to me,” he said, “but your house being in imminent danger where you can see the flames? I can do without that. “
Most firefighters fighting the fires in the National Forest behind Shulman’s ranch would make more money taking a starter job with the local fire department in Eagle, which has 6,500 residents.
If federal employees went to the Denver Fire Department, most would more than double their wages.