![]() ![]() There is up-close footage of the firefighters working through the desert heat and dust to create a retardant line to contain fire. McClintock’s dismissive comment provided the inspiration for a video titled “Unskilled Labor” that follows a Hot Shot crew through the 2020 fire season. Of the 50 Hot Shot crews deployed throughout the state of California, only 36 are fully staffed, according to Golden, who volunteers his time with the advocacy group, Grassroots Wildland Firefighters. Forestry Service earn half of what California pays its firefighters, and after the federal government’s “Fire Hire” last fall, its annual recruitment drive, there were 721 vacancies. These elite firefighters working for the U.S. Fully staffing the more than 100 Hot Shot crews assigned to the West is a challenge. Hot Shots stay with it because they love the allure of the job, but the low pay is taking its toll. The backlash was immediate, and the Republican fiscal hawk eventually said his words had been “misconstrued” as he was trying to talk about how difficult it is to fill other entry-level forestry positions because of enhanced unemployment benefits. Tom McClintock said in early July, shortly before a fire raged in his heavily forested district, pulling in more than 2,740 firefighters. “Wildfire fighting is hot, miserable work, but it is not skilled labor,” California Rep. The government classifies these highly skilled firefighters as seasonal, part-time “forestry technicians” even as they risk their lives in a fire season that’s become all consuming, starting earlier and ending later because of climate change. ![]() I found myself having to move around to move up, and after a while it didn’t make sense asking my wife to give up her job so I could go to a remote duty station somewhere and be gone for four months.” “I left because the pay was just not enough. You need 1,000 hours of overtime just to exist in the winter,” says Jonathon Golden, who left the Hot Shots in 2019 after 12 seasons. “Even with 1,000 hours of overtime, you’re counting pennies come January, February, and you’re waiting to go back to work in April or May. As the West burns with 87 large active fires in 13 states as of Saturday, the federal government is doing its best to ignore the plight of the elite, overworked and underpaid Hot Shots fighting those fires for base pay of less than $14 an hour, a number President Biden has called “ridiculously low,” and who lose their medical coverage when the fire season ends because they are seasonal, part-time workers. ![]()
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