Not enough firefighters to form hotshot crews The money comes with peace of mind, as he now attends all of his children’s events, even coaching some flag football. Hump says he’s paid at least $40,000 more annually than what he made before as a hotshot supervisor. Hump, a married father with three children - ages 12, 10 and 8 - now works for Pacific Gas and Electric, as a lead on the utility’s safety infrastructure protection team. “The level of stress I was bringing home (from massive fires) - I didn’t even recognize myself anymore.” “I needed to be home with my family,” Hump told CNN. On top of fiercer fires, an unrelenting drought and another big fire season on the horizon, California is losing hotshots, the rock star firefighters with the track records to successfully fight these mega blazes. Land management plays a role in the trend, experts say, but it alone cannot explain why the state’s fires have become so much more destructive.

The increase in California’s wildfire intensity and acres burned can only be explained by factoring in climate change, according to a recent analysis of several peer-reviewed studies. The Carr Fire, which changed Hump’s perspective on his work, ranked as the 12th largest fire in state history.

The seven largest wildfires in state history happened within the last four years, according to Cal Fire. The recent fires are part of a larger trend in California. The prolonged drought in the West is also fueling the fires, just one of the ways climate change is compounding the crisis. Fires are getting fiercerĮxperts fear another terrible wildfire season - possibly worse than 2020, the most active fire season that California has ever recorded. They are asking the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government to include it in the 2022 funding bill, according to the letter. On Wednesday, Senators Feinstein and Alex Padilla of California, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Steve Daines of Montana wrote a letter proposing a plan to raise federal firefighter pay. “State, local and private entities can range from $70,000 to $88,000 a year, and their benefits are better,” she said. The United States Forest Service pays $38,000.”ĭuring the hearing, US Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen confirmed the average yearly pay for a US Forest Service firefighter is $38,000. “State pay is $70,000, that’s what Cal Fire pays to a state firefighter. “We have 19 million acres under federal jurisdiction,” Feinstein said in the May 26 hearing on Capitol Hill. Dianne Feinstein pressed the US Forest Service in a May hearing on how it can stop losing hotshots to other places offering bigger salaries. He estimates they are missing hotshots in 35 key positions this summer in California.Ĭalifornia Sen. “I know of three or four forests that are down staffed.” She says the problems are not new and apply to other federal firefighters. “We have experienced staffing challenges as a result of issues such as compensation, remote and hard-to-fill duty stations, a competitive employment market, and the physical and mental stress of year-round fire conditions on fire personnel,” Regina Corbin, a spokeswoman for the US Forest Service, told CNN via email.Ĭorbin said that Region 5, which includes California, is converting temporary seasonal positions to permanent full-time posts to improve recruitment and retention. But all levels of firefighters are moving on, including top managers who have the most experience. These usually young, seasonal firefighters are some of the ones who are leaving. They get laid off when fire season is over, and they choose not to come back.” “We’re abusing them because we are short-staffed, and they are not getting their rest periods. “Yes, you can make overtime, but we’re putting them through the meat grinder,” Alicea told CNN.

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