So you have a summer to kill, a hankering for adventure, and wouldn’t mind saving some pristine forest or maybe a family’s home from an inferno?
A job as a wildland firefighter with the US Forest Service sounds like the perfect fit, but how do you get into this elite corps? It may not be as hard, or as easy as you think.
Four-year veteran and “Hotshot” Dan Pool says the most difficult part of becoming a wildland firefighter is the application process. For most, this means logging on to the Forest Service’s AVUE Digital Services (ADS) website to create a personnel profile.
“The AVUE is a huge pain in the you know where,” says Pool, “but it is useful for people who want to get a job and can’t make a personal appearance before they get hired.”
No experience is necessary for the job, but accuracy is key as the ADS matrix will narrow down the applicants. Then they send paper applications tailored to the specific location you have applied for and whether you’re applying for Type 2 (regular fire crew) or Type 1 (smoke jumper or “hotshot.”) Pool suggests prospective applicants also contact the administrators in charge of fire crews in that location non-stop until they get a response.
Once the Forest Service selects you as a candidate you must complete the pack test–the only universal requirement to fight fire–carrying a 45 pound pack three miles in under forty-five minutes. “It doesn’t sound too tough, but you have to keep a pretty brisk pace,” Pool says. Type 1 minimums are higher: 7 pull ups, 25 push-ups, and 45 sit-ups, and running a mile and a half in under 11 min.
The “pack test” has no gender bias, and neither, it seems, does the Forest Service. Pool says the women firefighters do the same work as the men. “Don’t be intimidated,” Pool says to female applicants. “If you want to do it, you can, but don’t expect special treatment. The most consistent rule for everyone is that you always do as much as you possibly can so no one else is carrying your load of work.”
After the pack test, the reality of firefighting settles in. “I was pushed to my physical limits a few times but I didn’t expect that the hardest part of “Fire” would be getting along with 19 other crew members in extremely close and stressful situations.” Pool goes on to say, “We shortly became family with an unconditional ability to love and hate the person next to you and have your life in their hands and theirs in yours. The friends I have made through “Fire” are the strongest and deepest you can make.”
Social burdens come up again when asked about what expectations other people had before working on fire crews.
“Many people think that fighting fire is a glamorous job,” Pool says, “fighting the evil fire, saving babies from burning cabins and other Hollywood images and they become disenfranchised by the huge slow moving machine of the government and disappointed by not being pushed hard enough physically and pushed too hard socially.”
To work well as a firefighter, one has to lose all of his or her expectations. “Some days you will work 16 hours non-stop without any breaks, eating your lunch on the go and ‘runnin’ and gunnin” with fire actively pushing you at every moment, hiking up and down steep and dangerous slopes while carrying all your gear (any where from 30 -60 lb) while trees are falling around you, helicopters and planes are dropping retardant and water all around you, while you are trying to accomplish the day’s task.
Then the next day the fire will be too hot to work near, or some other issue will make your entire crew wait all day to get to work, sitting in the hot sun for 16 hours with nothing to do but guess when they will be called to work. Sometimes you don’t get called. Sitting for 18 hours is much worse than working for 16 hours.”
The working conditions are intense and dangerous. “I was surrounded by fire with no way out; we got lucky and found an area that wasn’t burning so hot and we ran through it to safety,” Pool says.
Fear plays an active role. “Being scared is a life-saving feeling. I would feel scared most of the day on a big fire. It’s ok to feel scared but you have to have situational awareness, to know what kind of danger you are in and if you can mitigate the danger and if you can’t, then know what you can do to stay alive.”
For more information:
This was one of the original posts at the Traveler’s Notebook. Since this post was up we’ve moved travel and adventure jobs to Matador Abroad
www.wildlandfirefighter.com is a magazine for and by wildland firefighters.
Women in the Fire Service or WFS has a particularly informative website for those interested in becoming wildland firefighters.
In the Matador Community, Andris Bjornson has worked as a Wildland Firefighter.
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11 Comments... join the discussion!
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I’ve been doing a lot of research on smoker jumping and hotshoting. I am very interested in doing these things. I am about to become a firefighter here in alabama. I hope eventually to get out west and become a smoke jumper. I would like any information anyone can give me. Thanks.
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I have been interested in becoming a smoke jumper for quite some time, a few years to be exact, but I have no fire experience, what do i need to do in order to accomplish this lifelong goal of mine. I am a high school teacher/baseball/wrestling coach i am 43 years old, in pretty good physical shape.
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Sorry this reply is so late!
Chris,
The AVUE Digital Services website is the only place to get an application to any wildland firefighting job run by the US Forest Service. The website is large and cumbersome, but once you fill out the forms you will be in the pool. Here’s the website again:
https://www.avuedigitalservices.com/usfs/applicant.htmlEthan and Herbert,
Ethan, you are on the right track. Most smoke-jumpers start on regular fire crews getting valuable experience before trying to go for the type 1 fire card. Learn everything you can, then try out for smoke jumper. The competition is fierce, but well worth it in the end. If being 43 is a concern for you Herbert, don’t worry. I didn’t run into any age restrictions in researching this story. If you’re in good physical shape and have a flexible enough schedule, get on a regular fire crew. After that, sky’s the limit.Good luck,
Eric↵ -
Eric is right. Age is not a hinderance as long as you are fit. Getting the pre-requisite training in Type 2 crews (engines, ground crews other then “Hot Shots). I know many school teachers who work fires in the summer, partly for the cash, partly because they are adrenaline junkies and enjoy the work.
Another good option for the aviation minded is a heli-tack crew. You are attached to a ship for the season doing everything involved in the water drops and support functions helicopters provide in wildland fire. Smoke jumping positions are highly sought after and the competition is fierce within both the Forest Service and BLM. Very few get a jumper slot right out of the gate. Don’t forget state forestry agencies; the California Division of Forestry hires fire crews each summer as do most other western states. If you are in forestry/resource school you can also get on pick-up crews as part of your curriculum, if your college/university offers the option.
Eric points out some important realities of pursuing this line of work. When the season isn’t jumping you’ll be doing other kinds of work. As an ecologist for the Forest Service, I enlisted hot shot crews and helitack to complete fencing projects, fisheries habitat restoration and other non-fire orientied jobs. Once the call goes out though, you’ll be on the line. Remember you’ll be gone for extended periods of time….sometimes months. Significant others need to know this (this includes your four pawed family).
One other perk of seasonal firefighting work is the schedule. Unless you are “full time” with an appointment, you’ll be working just a portion of the year. If the hazard pay and overtime are good, that gives you a block of time and a pretty fat bankroll for traveling. Fire fighter friends in California go to Baja for a few months every year once they hang up their Whites and put the red pack away for the season.
An interesting international note: Russia hires 10 times the smoke jumpoers as the U.S….somewhere in the number of 5000 . A close friend of mine was the first ever female smokejumper in the US Forest Service. She rose in the agency to become an international liason, working overseas and bringing firefighters from their country over here. Good luck to anyone trying to break into the fray. I still have lots of contacts in the agencies, so if you need some assistance send me a message through the Matador network.
Cheers,
Chrysser↵ -
any one know of fire fighter job agencies in so cal?? I wanna apply.
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i mean wildland fire fighter agencies
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TONY- Try either the US Forest Service or CAL FIRE for SO. CAL. hiring. Most are probably booked now but its worth a shot. Your best bet is to find the forests in So. Cal. you want to work in and call them and they can put you in touch with the right people. They get so many applications that with a face with the name or at least a call you will just get put at the bottom of the pile. So. Cal. is a happening place and they get a lot of applications. Hope is works out for you- it is awesome!
Be Safe!
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i really need to know where in so cal i can get a job fighting wildfires? please help if you know how i can get started
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i need to know if you already finish complete your pack test is a chance i still can join without doing it again
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I recently met a firefighter who peaked my interest even more in firefighting. I had thought about it few years back and joined the Army in stead and now I want to do both. My main interest is in Wildland Firefighting. I just want to know what I should do to get started? What corses or schools are good? I have no problem work from the bottom up. I just need to know what to do and what I need to do in order to move up the chain quickly. Thanks again.
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