'This is just another low-paying job' say overtaxed U.S. firefighters

[Demovictory9]

LOS ANGELES/WASHINGTON, July 14 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - More than 17 years of fighting wildfires for the U.S. Forest Service has taken a toll on Brian Campbell.

He's been homeless, once spending months sleeping in a van while fighting fires in the state of Idaho. He routinely is called to drive the engine he captains in Washington state across the country at a moment's notice to support local crews.

During fire season he spends long stints in the forest without seeing his wife and young children.

Yet his salary is barely enough to get by on - $50,000 a year. Although he loves the job, he's keeping his eyes open for other work.

"The seasons are longer, and we're not being treated any better," he told Thomson Reuters Foundation in a phone interview - a view echoed by a half-dozen other current and former wildland firefighters.

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The way most firefighters make ends meet is by racking up significant hours of overtime, Martin said, setting up a perverse incentive to work too hard, and possibly get injured or burned out.

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One former federal firefighter in New Mexico, who recently left to join a municipal fire department, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that the low pay and lack of benefits forced him out of his job

"I worked for five years as a seasonal firefighter, starting at $13 an hour, and ending at $15. In the end it was just too stressful to make ends meet, " he said, asking for anonymity to speak freely about working conditions.

https://news.trust.org/item/20210714093414-wpkb3

[EYESORE 9001]

1. An absolute GD disgrace!

We can - and must - do better.

[Phoenix61]

2. I had a friend when I lived in Alabama who was a hotshot firefighter.

Real quiet kinda guy but man did he have some stories to tell. Getting dropped off by a helicopter then rappelling down a cliff just to get to the fire.