The US has faced a critical shortage of firefighters at the US Forest Service (USFS) this summer as thousands of fires erupted across the country. Despite officials’ claims that the firefighting workforce was stronger than ever, the agency has failed to keep pace with escalating conditions and the catastrophic fires fueled by them, according to nine firefighters who spoke to the Guardian anonymously, because they are barred from disclosing the information to the public. Several people familiar with internal hiring data at the agency said there were also large gaps in important leadership roles, which had caused bottlenecks and operational challenges during a busy and dangerous year.
They described a response system that’s been pushed to the brink, as unsustainable pressure is put on skeleton crews with months to go before the highest fire risks subside. Last year, many firefighters had to work more than 1,000 hours of overtime – the equivalent of cramming an extra five months of work into an already busy season. This year is expected to be even worse.
When it’s not Spokane, it’s going to be the next town, and the next town.” The USFS, housed under the Department of Agriculture, employs the bulk of the federal government’s fire workforce and manages more than 193m acres across the country. The agency has struggled with recruitment and retention for years, an issue that’s come to a head as the climate crisis fuels a rise in dangerous fire conditions. A fire captain put the shortages in context by comparing crews to players in a soccer match, where each team has 11 players allowed on the field but an active roster of 30 in case substitutions have to be made.
In the forest service, he said, there are no backup players. Playing a whole season with 13 people is abuse,” he said. Instead, the USFS points to a hiring goal of 11,300 positions as the benchmark for operational staffing levels – a number that has remained flat for years.
John Winn, a spokesperson for the USFS, declined to answer questions about the staffing challenges or provide clarity on the numbers. He doubled down on Schultz’s claims, saying in an email that the agency was “fully staffed at the level we are funded for, and our posture allows us to respond effectively – just as we have for decades”. But the minimum “operational” staffing levels are far different from what’s required to have a functioning firefighting force in the current climate, according to several firefighters.
Firefighters who have seen internal staff totals said the actual number of people who were able and available to be deployed when large blazes erupt was likely far smaller than what the USFS had reported to the public. The disparity between the rhetoric repeated in public and the situation on the ground has added to the burdens borne by exhausted crews. Specialized positions needed for running large-scale fire suppression operations, including taskforce leaders, division supervisors and heavy equipment bosses, require decades of experience.
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