Majority of Wildland Firefighters Have Lost Faith in D.C. Policy Makers.

Poll of firefighters shows lack of confidence.

This weekend The Hotshot Wake Up put out a poll asking wildland firefighters if they thought Congress would pass the Tim Hart Act in a timely manner. The poll was available for 24 hours and we received 1,014 responses.

The question we asked was:

• “Do you believe Congress will pass the Tim Hart act in the next two years.

  

Of all the respondents, 76% said they did not believe Congress would pass this crucial Bill in time for the 2024 fire season. The chatter in wildland fire shops about improvements in wages, benefits, and mental heath support have been ongoing for a looong time. It’s gotten to the point where sarcasm about the issue is common place. “Maybe one day I’ll be able to retire. Just gotta gut it out”. The fact is, policy makers are known as “Charlie Foxtrot” in our industry, or “Common Fucks”. If you don’t know… you don’t want to be that. The fire world no longer sees the bureaucratic machine as allies, or at least a system that’s capable of making changes for the betterment of it’s people.

The results show very glaring issues that D.C. policy makers have on their hands. First, they have created an environment where the country’s wildland firefighting force does not believe they can get positive change done in a timely fashion. This isn’t a new phenomena. I have written about it and talked about this issue on The Hotshot Wake Up Podcast. This goes back to Yarnell and Granite Mountain, and even before that.

Nine years ago promises were made by policy makers at the HIGHEST levels during the funeral for the fallen firefighters on Granite Mountain. None of those promises have come to fruition since. This cemented in the minds of wildland firefighters that folks in D.C. are not willing, or even capable, of following through. If they were on a Hotshot crew they would most likely be fired or not invited back during their exit interview. In turn, this developed a learned response in our industry. Anytime we are “promised” that change is coming, sarcasm kicks in and it isn’t believed.

The second issue this poses for elected policy makers is this. When your employee base is already short staffed due to 40% of your workforce leaving in the last two years… these circumstances don’t help retention. After watching the Congressional hearings with Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management leadership two things became clear. Congress wasn’t willing to admit they were also at fault for the retention issues and the Agencies were not willing to admit the true scale of the issue and how to actually fix it.

Hey big brains in D.C.… I’ll help you out. Fulfill your decades old promises and pass the Tim Hart Act. We are at a point now where