That means during peak summer firefighting season, he and 19 other teammates are getting dropped off. "I mean, you could at least start patching up a hole." Alvarez, 34, is part of the Black Mountain Interagency Hot Shot Crew based in Carson City. "That would be a huge start, $20 dollars an hour," Lee said. The groups wants pay parity and retirement benefits for all firefighters, and they've drawn up a bill that would immediately give all firefighters a 50% pay raise and set the starting wage for hotshots at $20 an hour. Grassroots Wildland Firefighters said 20% of the Forest Service's permanent firefighter positions are currently vacant. "To me, it’s a real loss to the taxpayers and to the American public when we lose these highly qualified federal wildland firefighters to other agencies," Martin said.Ī spokesman for the Forest Service said California has a goal of 44 hotshot crews, but right now only 31 are fully staffed. Hotshot Crews are so named because of the need for tough, knowledgeable, rugged individuals who can be sent ahead of the main contingent of ordinary labor crews. Now she's president of a nonprofit fighting for better pay and safer working conditions for federal firefighters across the country. Martin worked as a firefighter for 35 years – her last 14 years as the chief of fire and aviation at Yosemite National Park.
"They really have to really think about what’s the best for them and their families," Grassroots Wildland Firefighters President Kelly Martin said. The federal firefighters are often working side-by-side with crews from Cal Fire and other agencies who often make double what they do. "And now the Forest Service is competing with unemployment, because you make more on unemployment than you would as an entry-level firefighter," Lee said. Starting pay for a hotshot team member is $13.45 an hour. A group of men known as the Granite Mountain Hotshots a tight-knit team of experts. Now in the private sector, he's worried many like him are following his lead, walking away due to low wages and a lack of benefits. Yarnell, Arizona CNN It’s been four years since Arizona’s firefighting community lost 19 of its own. As of Thursday morning, the Camp fire had scorched through 140,000 acres and was 40 contained. Lee was among the elite, working for the Forest Service for more than two decades as a wildland firefighter. Containment percentages can fluctuate as the flames grow away from the hot shot crews. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter. Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news.
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