Extremely dangerous, physically taxing job, that’s viewed as critical to the safety of people and property. Paid minimum wage. Gee, wonder why no one wants to do that job?
I’m a firefighter and emt, non wildland. Yeah, the pay is pretty bad across the board in my area. Starting pay is generally $35k to $42k a year around where I’m at. Their are definitely lower paying jobs, but when you factor in the hundreds of hours of training, certifications, clean background, clean drivers license, and ongoing training, recertification, and being away from home 52 hours a week it’s a pretty big ask for something that requires competent and responsible people that respond to all the medical calls, fires, car wrecks, water rescues, rope rescue, and everything else when someone isn’t sure who to call while driving around in million+ dollar trucks.
Even so, a lot of people still want to become firefighters, but there’s a lot less now than there used to be. A bigger city near me used to get 250 applicants a year 15 to 20 years ago. Nowadays it’s closer to 75 people. The bar has been lowered so far that some of the smaller departments are having to “scrape the bottom of the barrel”. It used to be that you had to already have your fire 1 and 2 certs and an emt license and be at least 21 to get your foot in the door. Now they’re hiring 18 year olds before they pass their tests and giving them a year to get their emt license.
Structural firefighting is hazardous, but if you can get out of the building the risk can be minimal. Wildland firefighting is orders of magnitude more hazardous. Wind-driven wildfires can travel at 60 mph (100 kph) or more, not only can’t you outrun them it’s unlikely you could escape in a vehicle (assuming you even had access to one) due to the terrain. Paying them minimum wage is an insult and should be illegal but that’s the American Way.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/thirty-mile-crew-boss-charged-in-4-fire-deaths/
July 10, 2001: Firefighters Tom Craven, 30; Devin Weaver, 21; Jessica Johnson, 19; and Karen FitzPatrick, 18, die while battling the 9,500-acre Thirty Mile wildfire in a rugged area of the North Cascades.
These people, 3 out of 4 barely just adults, died because of negligence by their supervisor. Died inside their fireproof tents.
It’s been a long time coming. A lot of firefighting in the US is also done by prison and jail labor, which is paid even less.
Endless greed will be the undoing of this nation.
The fireproof shelters can protect you from getting burned for a while but large fires consume oxygen at an incredible rate. You can survive the heat yet suffocate if the fire is large enough. It’s a horrible way to die.
Later article:
Ellreese Daniels, 47, faced a maximum of six months in prison after he reached a deal with prosecutors. That deal dropped the charges he faced from manslaughter to two counts of making false statements to investigators.
I mean getting 4 people killed isn’t that bad, right?
Not discounting anything you wrote but the word fireproof.
We were never ever taught that word and were always trained that the burrito wrapper is an absolute last chance tool that only works if many specific (generally unrealistic) variables aligned. Like a site with terrain you can actually get a “seal”, no overhead debris risk, no/very low local ground fuels, etc. Further, it will not stand up to direct fire in any way at all.
I am not defending the use or equipping of these tools.
I left after 7 years because I couldn’t make a career out of it, such that I could justify being away from my wife so long, in a somewhat risky job, for bad wage and so so benefits
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/29/canada-wildfires-us-crews-shift-strategy
Not only this, compared to Canada they work their firefighters harder and longer in the U.S.:
While the tool is considered an essential “last-resort” protection by American agencies, Canadian strategies focus on ensuring firefighters aren’t put in situations where they might have to rely on the devices. The shelters aren’t always reliable, especially in the types of terrain where Canadian crews often fight fire.
“The overall goal is to save human life – and that includes their own firefighters not just the public,” Mueller said.
That ethos is also applied to working conditions.
Even though the 4.30am sunrise and 11.30pm sunset allowed for more daylight hours on the fire line, the American firefighters found they had to cut their typical shifts short.
“We were used to operating in a 24-hour environment,” Mueller said, but he and his crew had to head out after a 12-hour mark, in order to abide by Alberta rules, which mandate periods of rest to protect against stress and fatigue.
Wildfire ecologist Robert Gray said that on-the-ground realities dictate the difference in strategies between the two countries and this has led to incorrect assumptions that Canadian crews take fewer risks.
