Sometimes ad hoc is sufficient; sometimes it is not. Fighting fires always has been more than a one-person task. It has been a community task where all the able adults from far and wide came to pitch in to quench the raging inferno of a farm or home of a friend and neighbor. Eventually more was needed.
Even before New Amsterdam was officially chartered as city on February 2, 1652, there were fire ordinances in place dating back to 1648. Soon thereafter there would be bucket brigades. In the next century fire engines joined the engine company. Able-bodied men were expected to join the brigade to when the fire alarm was sounded in their neighborhood. Eventually, of course, fire fighters would become fulltime although many communities still have volunteer forces where people are on call to fight fires in their communities.
The job has changed over the centuries. America has grown. There are now huge forests where scarcely anybody lives. There also are huge forests adjacent to where people do live. The fires that occur now are beyond anything the colonists experienced. Apparently the Indian tribes knew how to manage the forests to prevent a raging fire that plagues the civilized people. Maybe we could learn something from them.
HOTSHOTS
On April 7, 2022, Hotshot Chris Marino resigned from the position of Forestry Technician with the USDA Forest Service. In a two page letter which included his personal history within the organization, he added some details about the management of the fire fighters. He noted that he was not the first to pen such a missive but he could not leave without commenting on “the grave state of federal wildland firefighting.” He wrote from the love of the job and the service to the landscapes and communities. He wrote about the sense of purpose in the work. He wrote of the bonds created when the physical and mental demands are extreme. Yet:
Many of the best moments of my life came when I was completely depleted, hungry, tired, beyond mental and physical exhaustion and yet I was completely fulfilled.
Yet:
The Agency is failing its firefighters on so many levels. Classification, pay, work life balance, metal health, presumptive disease coverage and injury/fatality support.
The problems are becoming worse.
The wildfire environment has changed and Agency leadership has failed to acknowledge these new risks, responsibilities, liabilities…As a result, we are experiencing a dire retention issue….We are losing people at a terrifying rate at a time when wildfires burn longer, hotter, more frequent and with devastating severity.
Pay. Recognition. Staffing. New Technology.
Marino sent this letter his Superintendent Scott Burghardt. He wrote his own letter praising his subordinate as an exemplary worker.
Chris is the epitome of what the agency should be cultivating as a leader…not losing.
This resignation hit home.
Watching the mass exodus of our operational knowledge is one of the saddest evolutions I have witnessed.
Knowledge has been lost. Vacancies remain unfilled. Fire behavior, fire size, and fire severity have increased exponentially.
Was the devastation of the last few fire seasons not compelling illustration?…When is the agency going to adequately address staffing, retention and the needs of its wildfire suppression programs?
Burghardt circulated these two letters and they were posted in Wild Fire Today on April 14, 2022, nearly three years ago.
Moving forward over two years the following were published:
“We are Running out of Firefighters at a Perilous Time (NYT September 21, 2024 online)
“Want to Stop Wildfire Catastrophes? Pay Firefighters More) (NYT September 24, 2024 print)
Author Robert Langellier refers to the 2022 letters by of his former crew members and former superintendent. He repeats the charges of poor pay, increasingly exhausting working conditions and a lack of mental health support leading to “profound levels of attrition.” He also notes how Congressional action or inaction can compromise efforts to improve conditions.
Moving forward again, the front page of the NYT (Sunday January 12, 2025 print) has the headline “Fires in Los Angeles Area Are Grim Look into Future.” The two subheadings were “Warming Will Make Disasters Worse, Experts Say” and “Agencies’ Resources Were No Match for These Blazes.”
This former fire fighter details some of the specific actions which can be taken to mitigate the chances of megafires. The biggest problem is that they need to be taken on federal lands which is where the forests are located. The next biggest problem is that such actions are labor intensive and expensive. The third biggest problem following the articles above is that the staffing levels are way down and insufficient to the work that needs to be done. The fourth biggest problem is Project 2025. Simply put Republicans will not properly fund the Forest Service so it can do its job.
For one thing, the President of the United States who is supposed to be the nation’s comforter in chief instead had added fuel to the fire. He would rather play the blame game and hold (Democratic) California responsible for the fires. He would rather extort the state in its time of vulnerability to demand a transactional exchange for help. Here is where having a President with no compassion, no sympathy, no empathy, and no heart really is exposed even more so than throwing paper towels in Puerto Rico.
But wait! There is more.
Trump’s federal hiring freeze halts onboarding of federal firefighting crews ahead of wildfire season (CNN February 8, 2025).
Similar concerns were expressed in USA Today: “Senators: Trump hiring freeze hurts firefighting (February 13 print).
So at the exact moment when firefighters should be hired for the coming season, there is a freeze on hiring. The biggest obstacle to having an adequate and trained firefighting personnel with up-to-date technology are eerily similar to the same factors that caused a plane crash in Washington. Move aside Nero. Republicans are playing with political fires while the country is literally on fire. How many more have to die before Republicans in Congress say enough is enough?
But wait! There is more.
Trump fires federal workers who help fight forest fires weeks after historic LA blazes (USA Today February 20, 2025)
Just when you thought things could not get any worse.
AMERICA NEEDS A DISASTER CORPS (THE ATLANTIC SEPTEMBER 24, 2024)
Not that long ago, hurricanes were the problem. Remember Helene? Way back last September when hurricanes were the rage, Zoe Schanger suggested that America needs a disaster corps. We are past the point of ad hoc solutions to ongoing disasters. Surveying the devastation across the southeast and the myriad of small organizations seeking to help those in need, Zanger proposed a national disaster corps.
Imagine if FDR were alive today and what he would do. There would be a national disaster corps. There would be training facilities throughout the country perhaps in underutilized military bases and high schools. People would be trained to go at a moment’s notice to assist in hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, and fires. It would be a place where platoons of veterans could find purpose and meaning with a band of brothers on the home front. It would be a place for teenagers to be rescued from the streets and begin a path to a responsible adulthood.
The National Organization of Assistance and Help (NOAH) would mean that we would not have to reinvent the wheel every time a disaster occurs. All we need is an FDR for the 21st century and not a Carnage President.
