The Wildland Firefighter Shortage

some thoughts on incarcerated firefighters

There’s a shortage of federal wildland firefighters.

When I began working as a hotshot in 2001, as a GS-3, my pay was about $10.50 an hour. Today, wildland firefighters at the GS-3 level are paid $11.95 an hour. That’s less than $2.00 more an hour that over TWO decades ago.

I worked in California, where I received a small cost of living boost, but that boost is negligible. Many federal wildland firefighters working throughout California cannot afford to live alone, and some can’t afford housing at all.

Compared to state firefighters in California, their pay is abysmal. Check out the statistics here.

Federal agencies lament the firefighter shortage, but are unwilling to make permanent and necessary changes to firefighter pay. In the age of climate change, which is causing longer fire seasons and more volatile fires, both federal and state agencies rely more and more on incarcerated firefighters, who are often paid much less than federal firefighters.

Today I’m sharing an essay I wrote about incarcerated firefighters in September 2020. Much of what I wrote is still true now.

Read the article here.

An excerpt:

“The United States incarcerates more citizens than other developed nations, and it’s long been argued that the prison industrial complex is toxic to the rehabilitation of incarcerated individuals. How can we meet our need for firefighters and also help rehabilitate those who have committed crimes?

Using federal and state prisoners as wildland firefighters has recently been called slave labor. Incarcerated people are especially vulnerable, both to abuse (by guards and officers) and to injury (from the hazards of wildfire). Wildland firefighting is an inherently dangerous job. Prisoners don’t get the extra “hazard pay” that regular wildland firefighters do. Still, for some prisoners, the job is a point of pride.”

The subject of incarcerated labor is complex and nuanced. I invite you to read the full article and ask any questions you may have in the comments.

I also invite you to read the book Breathing Fire: Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Lines, by Jaime Lowe. The book is beautifully written and gives an inside look on the hazards and triumphs of working on a fire crew as an incarcerated firefighter.

I’ll be writing more as the fire season picks up, so expect at least one email a week from me throughout the spring, summer, and fall. If there’s something specific you’d like to learn more about, please drop it in the comments! And please consider sharing this newsletter with your networks.