r/Wildfire • u/Bazryel • Mar 06 '25

News (General) Mass USFS firings will strain nation's wildfire fighting force

https://wildfiretoday.com/2025/03/06/mass-usfs-firings-effect-on-wildland-firefighters/?fbclid=IwY2xjawI2_i9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHUm3J42Ixc_fAWoBiKIjwvzL6IqwXasNXkJwWbXOJAk0AkeRZo9lcbYGjw_aem_Lki4cCZ6ubdwA0IqcZUE7Q
510 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

117 comments sorted by

View all comments

98

u/Bazryel Mar 06 '25

"Around 75% of the USFS probationary employees that the Trump Administration fired had secondary wildland fire duties, according to numbers obtained from the National Federation of Federal Employees’ Wildland Fire division."

24

u/StayCourse4024 Mar 07 '25

That's the way the USFS operates. When there's a fire, everyone works for fire. Same goes for their sister agencies in NPS, BLM, USFWS, and BIA.

This summer is going to get a little rodeo. I hope the townspeople have buckets of water to throw in the flames like they did during the Chicago fires.

-11

u/YOLO_Bundy Mar 07 '25

They will just be replaced with municipal and Calfire personnel...just like IMT have been doing for nearly 2 decades now.

7

u/No-Grade-4691 Mar 07 '25

Municipal doesn't even properly put out fires and they always try to give us latlongs using their phones. Vfds are even worse since they don't report up the chain. 80% of the time they go out put out a grass fire and two weeks later we hear about it from the state with out a size up.

-3

u/YOLO_Bundy Mar 07 '25 edited Mar 07 '25

What? Nobody is talking about PRIMARY FIREFIGHTERS being replaced.

This article obscures the fact that militia, or non-fire positions, are the ones being fired or RIF'ed. NOT PRIMARY FIRE. Typically, those personnel fill non-operational positions, whether locally, or on an IMT.

Meanwhile, they post photos of actual firefighters in an attempts to gain public support by stating "FIREFIGHTERS ARE BEING FIRED!!!"

It is bullshit, and your comment is irrelevant. This entire discussion has very little to do with primary fire aka actual operational firefighters.

As I have said many times, the union is being dishonest in their communications.

Holding an ICQS card, and filling an ICS position once or twice a year, does not make you a FIREFIGHTER.

This does not mean I dislike any of these folks or wish them ill. Many of them are my friends. I help them, they help us. I train them and do my best to get them paid. I advocate for them in all of the firefighter pay initiatives because they are part of the team.

But at some point, we need to separate objective truth fro total union bullshit.

4

u/No-Grade-4691 Mar 07 '25

Alot of fire departments these days are just ems these days. secondary fire will probally see more fire then those departments ever will.

0

u/YOLO_Bundy Mar 07 '25

Irrelevant.

They fill a wild amount of positions on any IMT.

Its a fact.

Try thinking outside of ops.