r/Wildfire • u/HeaviestSoftHitter • Dec 19 '24
Tim Sheehy (MT-R) Op Ed
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/heres-how-doge-can-help-save-lives-money-from-wildfires.ampI think this Op Ed authored by Tim Sheehy of Montana and published by Fox News should be worthy of each of our attention. After much speculation within this subreddit, this is the first stone cast that sheds some light on what the next four years may look like for the industry and plans for DOGE to be involved in reform within the industry.
For the most part, this opinion piece is full of fluff that panders to constituents who do not have an intimate understanding of the role various agencies play in firefighting. In other areas, the piece is nothing more than fear mongering in an effort to drum up naive support for massive federal reform at the expense of both the public and industry employees. Sheehy heralds “Adopting a more proactive, aggressive initial attack policy across agencies” but offers no substance on how to implement said policy, or address chronic personnel shortages, disparities in resource allocation and funding, or the environmental factors that play a significant factor in a fire’s resistance to control.
Sheehy continues “Aggressive initial attack relies on utilizing private resources, which are usually the quickest, most effective response option if we want to limit the size and scope of wildfire damage.” This is arguably the most concerning part of this opinion piece, rooted in nothing that even remotely resembles reality and is likely a reflection of Sheehy’s only real exposure to wildfire coming from his involvement in privately contracted aviation. From my perspective, this is Sheehy saying the quite part out loud, alluding to future efforts to continued privatization of Wildland firefighting. The importance of firefighting being a public service, not to be compromised by private efforts to line the pockets of company owners via the work of under experienced and undertrained, has been expressed within this subreddit.
I, as an individual, cannot force my coworkers, peers, and cooperators to pay attention to these statements and efforts. But I can actively work to remind folks that the federal government’s involvement in wildfire is the basis for the vast majority of employment, funding, training, and standards within the industry, regardless of if you’re employed by a federal agency, a state agency, a cooperator, or a contractor. Any effort to dismantle that should be quickly rebuked as nothing short of unacceptable. These are incredibly turbulent times for the industry, and I imagine like many of my peers I wait with bated breath to see how we fair over the coming years.
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u/hack_nasty Dec 19 '24
Funnel more government money to my private company. Im just trying to help, I swear.
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u/Alternative_Rule_935 Dec 19 '24
Aggressive initial attack? Can’t believe nobody’s ever tried that before! Surely dumping even more of the federal suppression budget into private aircraft will help. Let’s mist some more ridges to the tune of millions per shift.
Can’t believe this transparent grifter managed to fail upward into national office. Here’s hoping it’s his last job.
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u/some_kinda_cavedemon Dec 19 '24
Just a volunteer here, but doesn’t this reek of the failed 10am policy?
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u/keltron Dec 19 '24
Absolutely. Sheehy has based his entire opinion about the federal wildland workforce on one bad joke from another tanker pilot.
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u/Shoddy_Pay5822 Dec 19 '24
Air attack talking to ground resources. Following a 45 minute face to face by ground resources and long radio transmissions by a 6th year in fire DIVS back to a yurt nowhere near the fire…. “Looking to get the tankers in, Is the line clear???” (All clear sir, max coverage please) “Is it really clear because we can’t risk hitting anyone” (we are clear, go ahead with retardant)….less than a mist of cologne hits the ground. “We really gotta this line in, I need line clearance”. “You lost it all in the wind air attack”.
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u/letscott COMT Dec 19 '24 edited Dec 19 '24
My perspective is very narrow but, how is “an aggressive IA” possible when im still waiting for the radio starter kit from NIFC!?! (not complaining about NIFC they try and get it there asap) Like yeah I have my p150S and a spider cable but ain’t no way we are gonna have a command repeater up while we bog down forest service coms lol
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Dec 19 '24
"The company was facing a dire financial situation: it had lost $77.4 million in 2023 and $20.1 million in the first four months of 2024" - Wikipedia.
His company's going bankrupt and he wants to fuck everyone over so he can make $$. How wonderful!
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u/Soup-Wizard Wildland FF1 Dec 19 '24
It’s kind of like how they’re talking about the postal service these days. “It doesn’t generate enough profit!”
It was never supposed to. It is a service that the federal government provides to its citizens. It costs money, it doesn’t make money.
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u/Numbtwothree Dec 19 '24
John Tester was one of our strongest advocates and a pretty stand up guy as far as I could tell, and they traded him for this walking talking POS
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u/realityunderfire Dec 19 '24
I don’t live in Montana but spend a fair amount of time there. It absolutely blows me away how many wildland firefighters out there voted for She/he, the out of state businessman who is undoubtedly going to affect our job in a negative way just because he had an R next to his name.
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u/EyeRollMole Dec 19 '24
I think it's mostly the Fox News Californians who moved up during the pandemic. Montana and Idaho got overrun.
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u/EyeRollMole Dec 19 '24
Small government has always meant giving millions of taxpayer dollars to CEOs who can then donate it back to the Republican party.
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u/pedro070782 Dec 19 '24
Aggressive initial attack with private resources? Im sorry but I've lost faith in any contractors for anything other than mop up. And even that comes with caveats. Just this year I was on an initial attack with a private engine that got in a bad situation and stopped answering their radio. We had to stop what we were doing to make contact with them. Later it was revealed that it was their FIRST IA ever! We need to note deficiencies when we see it with private contractors. It's too rampant. Countless times I've had to help program their radios. When you get pencil whipped engine bosses with no experience and no way to verify qualifications, it's going to be a bad situation. I'm tired of people going around saying that these companies can take over. All I see is ineptitude.
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u/dave54athotmailcom Dec 19 '24
I ran his Op-Ed through my Politi-Speak Translator and got this:
"I intend to manipulate the fire policy to get my company more business, and thus more profit."
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u/Different_Ad_931 Dec 19 '24
It’s gonna be really funny when they realize that contractors are not going to give the coverage they want. And if he thinks airships will cover the gap but can’t because the winds are too high he’s gonna eat his words.
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u/NeedleworkerNaive300 Dec 19 '24
Increasing aviation and transferring risk to the pilots on unnecessary IA in the name of aggressive initial attack will unfortunately lead to an increase in fatalities. Hiking in and dropping every snag will certainly lead to an increase in fatalities. Meanwhile cost per acre will sky rocket but DOGE can say but look we were 99% successful at IA. SMDH
Maybe it’s time to dust off those old safety stand down cards we got several years ago. Was there an expiration date on those?
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Dec 19 '24
Don't we already have pretty aggressive initial attack? I mean we do catch something like 95% of ALL wildfires at 100 acres or less. Somebody correct me because I'm sure that stat isn't 100% correct but the point is, we already have hella aggressive IA.
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u/Sad-Warning-4972 Dec 19 '24
This guy is going to suck trump and Elon’s dicks so hard he’s gonna land himself a billion dollar contract, watch. He’s gonna buy out a ton of the smaller contractors and wildland fire is going to slowly consolidate on the back of political favoritism until there are only a few shows in town, and the federal component of wildland fire fighting will go completely out the door. We will spend millions of dollars on tiny fires, hammering them with this guys planes. Lmao it’d actually be so funny if it weren’t so sad.
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u/therealdickdic Dec 19 '24
The ol no gag reflex working overtime
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u/therealdickdic Dec 19 '24
Plus his scoopers are way overpriced. But that means nothing to what's next
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u/hiking_mike98 Dec 19 '24
This is the most transparent appeal to grift that I’ve ever seen. It’s shameful that he did this. But apparently we’ve canceled shame now, so 🤷♂️
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u/Shoddy_Pay5822 Dec 19 '24
If not for Feds, it would all look like Texas fire fighting and yeeFUCKINGhawwww all the way to the front. Bring your wife and kids out in the truck, find some old PPE and spray some water. I know it works a lot, it really does in some fuel types and rural areas. To make the private industry the initial attack model on federal land probably isn’t the right call. In the end it all comes down to who writes the check for what. Many fires would bankrupt states and counties and local governments if it wasn’t for Feds being able to be involved. Sheehy is a new introduction to the Federal Fire Industrial Complex and just trying to pave his way into his life’s riches. Montana can keep him and vote his ass out or buy slip tanks and bandanas.
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Dec 19 '24
[deleted]
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u/dvcxfg Dec 19 '24
A system of cells interlinked within cells interlinked within cells interlinked within one stem.
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Dec 20 '24 edited Dec 20 '24
As a Montanan, I’ve been warning this sub about this POS. The number of dumb fuckers in fire here in this state that voted for him, haven’t been around long enough to know.
This is exactly what president Musk and VP Trump want.
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Dec 19 '24
I’d have to look back over contracts but I believe one scooper costs more than four fire bosses. For that cost you can get more water on the fire and if one has a mechanical you still have three planes in the sky. I’ll pass that money saving tip onto DOGE.
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u/La_Pragmatica Dec 19 '24
I always knew I was somewhat expendable- but damn I now know I am. Guess our jobs are gonna get more deadlier.
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Dec 20 '24
Someone should request the Anti-Hero podcast to do a deep dive on his book and flimsy story about whether he shot himself in Glacier NP or was shot by one of his guys like he claims. Drag this fucker like they just did Tim Kennedy.
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u/LarzBizzarz Dec 22 '24
Yes because contractors are full of competent incident commanders and they have way more experience on IA than district resources... We live in a clown world.
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u/Piss_Poor_Heros Dec 19 '24
BREAKING NEWS: "Man who doesn't know how to do your job, tells you how to do your job."