Source New Mexico has an excellent story on a crisis that may only worsen as wildfire seasons get longer and more severe. Reporter Laura Paskus highlights the woefully inadequate pay and lack of benefits for federal firefights deployed to assist regional firefighters in battling massive blazes like the Hermits Peak fire, the Cerro Pelado wildfire, the Bear Trap fire, and the Cooks Peak wildfire. All four have burnt more than 400,000 of acres of land, with the 59,359-acre Cooks Peak blaze being the closest to being contained. As Paskus notes, “the majority of the people who show up when New Mexico goes up in flames work as federal wildland firefighters.”
Those firefighters are paid a pittance to put their lives at risk for a seasonal job, going without health insurance and frequently experiencing housing insecurity. Former wildland firefighter Kelly Martin detailed many of the hardships federal wildland firefighters experience both in the thick of responding to a blaze and when they return home. Martin told Source New Mexico that firefighters now regularly work “a thousand, 1,500 [hours]. And I think I’ve even heard that there are people out there that are almost working like 2,000 hours of overtime a year,” she told the outlet. “This constant immersion in an emergency mode is really having a tremendous impact on people’s mental health and well-being — to say nothing of their physical well-being.”
The Biden administration and lawmakers are fighting for federal firefighters to receive no less than $15 per hour and also streamline the worker’s comp process, but that still doesn’t account for those who struggle long after a fire’s been contained. Federal wildland firefighter Marcus Cornwell explained how those added benefits have yet to help federal firefighters who are already struggling, telling Source New Mexico that “once [federal firefighters are] laid off and if their fire family is not there to support them, they have no benefits.” Though the government is hoping to convert some seasonal firefighters to full-time positions, there is little incentive if working conditions—from understaffing to lack of benefits to poor pay—remain dismal.
This could very well impact how many federal wildland firefighters are able to be deployed in states like New Mexico. Like many states, New Mexico leans heavily on federal wildland firefighters to supplement the work being done by regional firefighters. The state is also guilty of using prison labor. Although that experience has translated to a viable business for a handful of formerly incarcerated folks, bringing the prison-industrial complex into the fight against rampant wildfires only further illustrates the sector’s major inequality issues that are likely to worsen as climate change escalates the intensity of wildfires and more resources are needed to address the crisis.