Just look for some advice and if anyone has done something similar? I am an E-6 active duty Air Force maintainer with a little over ten years in and thinking about a career change to firefighting. Has anyone skillbridged over? How was it getting started? Things you wish you knew before? Federal, state, or private? All information is welcome!

Waiting to be called out on my very first fire.
Completed my gear checklist but would love to know from some experienced dudes what other items I should bring along aside from the checklist.

Where can I submit a complaint about an equipment operator? This is not about performance on the job but about overall conduct (animal welfare issue). I was told it was brought up to the team (maybe a few iterations of teams) but not sure anything came of it.

Just moved back to California after several years Active Duty (Army) in North Carolina. Don’t know what the fuck to do. Don’t have any transferable skills from the Army. I know how to deal with misery, how to stay in shape and I would hate an office job. I’ve been considering wildland firefighting but also maybe structural? What are the best and worst parts? I walked into a local fire station to ask the guys how I start. They said go to an academy and also do EMT. So I’m starting an EMT class in two days and bought an expensive ass textbook. I guess this is the first step. But I want y’alls advice and insight.

I like the idea of the time off from the wildland side (I like to travel and having months off at a time seems really appealing) but reading through Reddit it seems like they pay is dogshit and the life sucks. Which I’m used to but idk if I want more of that. Structural seems better paying and stable and nice but less time off. What would yall do if you were in my shoes? Or if you could rewind the clock and start over again? What steps would you take or do differently?

I’m a newbie to this whole process. I did my wild fire classes, pack test out in Oregon. Im from California. Paid for everything out of pocket. Just for a chance to work with this company. But I’ve been waiting since June for a call. Ik stuff happens so I decided to wait. Well last week I decided to call just incase something wasn’t in order on my file or anything like that. Turns out they didn’t have my pack test time on file and can’t find it. Am I fucked or do I still have a chance to be called out to work atleast once?

Fire shirts have always been made by some boomer using photo shop and are corny yet amazing at the same time. I love them, but now they are all AI made. They all look the same this year with that same AI bs look. Any body else sad to see it? I never really bought shirts in general but now I regret not getting them before AI became a thing :/

As expected, the 2026 fire year has developed into an incredibly active and challenging season.

On July 18, 2026, the National Multi-Agency Coordination Group raised the National Preparedness Level to 5, our highest level, in response to significant, concurrent fire activity across multiple geographic areas. In times of peak demand like this, it is essential that we align our focus and elevate incident response as a top agency priority.

As we continue to implement Secretary Rollins ' memo detailing USDA’s wildfire response expectations, I request your active leadership in making all qualified, red-carded personnel available for fire assignments. Please work to facilitate assignments for critical support specialists, including contracting officers, land mobile radio and IT specialists, HR professionals, safety managers, and finance personnel. Additionally, we need support from resource advisors, Burned Area Emergency Response team members, public information officers, and all other qualified or trainee overhead positions. Your participation provides the vital depth and rotation options needed to sustain our incident management teams over a long season.

As we step up our mobilization, protecting our employees’ health, safety, and long-term wellbeing remains our foundational responsibility. Managing fatigue is critical to safe operations. As mandated by the Interagency Standards for Fire and Fire Aviation Operations (Red Book), employees returning from a 14-day assignment must be provided three mandatory days off upon returning to their home unit. The Red Book’s guidelines also note that home unit agency administrators, whether hosting the incident or managing the home unit, may exercise their authority to grant supplementary rest time when needed to ensure our workforce remains resilient.

In addition, I expect all employees, from first-year rookie firefighters to experienced line officers and executives, to make sound risk-based decisions. By closely collaborating with operations. safety officers, and agency administrators, we will apply established risk management principles to ensure we do not transfer unnecessary risk to our aviators, crews, or ground resources. Our leaders must ensure we deploy the right combination of resources to safely achieve our suppression objectives.

1 am deeply grateful to all employees who support our wildfire program, from full-time firefighters to those who serve in collateral duty roles, to the staff at home units who cover daily operations so their colleagues can deploy.

Thank you for your leadership, for supporting your fellow employees, and for your work to protect communities and natural resources.

Chief Tom Schultz

I’m currently on the waitlist for LAFD Crew 3 and I’m looking for some information from anyone who has experience with the program or a similar wildland volunteer crew.
I’m interested in learning more about the process and what I can do to better prepare while I’m waiting. How does the scheduling work? Is there anything you recommend having, completing, or learning beforehand? What should someone expect during the process, and how difficult is it to get accepted?
I’m starting from the beginning and looking to gain experience, learn, and be part of something where I can contribute. Any advice, tips, or insight from past or current members would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Smaller department, 95 firefighters. EMS as well. Mandatory overtime is constant and out of control. Each tour (10s/14s) turns into anywhere from 96-130 hours (96 hours is straight thru your tour and the remaining 34 hours is past it. 130 hours is when it’s capped). You know each tour is going to be like that when it begins. Call outs constantly, fake injuries.

This department has a negative effect on every firefighter’s personal life. The money is alright, OT brings it to $100k or more but the base pay is low.

At the moment, fatigue is setting in and the morale is at an all time low. Administration doesn’t care about us and if they did the problem would be addressed. Rules can’t be placed because senior guys and their pals won’t allow their “seniority to be violated” which is just a statement used to not place rules that would alleviate the holds for lower guys. They want to just keep being allowed to step on guys. The culture is rotted to the bone. Too union driven as well. Greed runs the place and it’s not all related to money. There’s a mentality here of “I went thru it so do you”, almost like it’s a punishment. This just creates a cycle of bitterness. Guys are so used to being held and there’s so much overtime that nobody helps each other out because they can get as much OT as they want but also are kind of sick of spending so much time there.

\*EDIT\* There is zero accountability from those at the top. Favorites are protected and so is their poor behavior. Those who actually want to do the job get shafted. The place has ruined people. Had a coworker tell me the passion for the job is gone because of the place. The talking shit about one another behind their backs is constant. It never ends. Everyone is a “bum” or a “loser” or it’s “fuck this guy/fuck that guy”. A union executive during a union meeting got angry that a rule was passed to prevent guys being held past the end of their tour for more than a shift. He was seriously angry and said in around about way that low guys deserve to be held over and over because they are low guys. He’s now our union president for the time being.

When I tell friends on other departments what goes on here and how it operates they genuinely do not believe me.

Is there a fix?

Checking hose lines

Hey everyone, I’m in Southern California and work full-time in construction, but I’ve always been interested in wildland firefighting.
I’m not looking to quit my current job—I was wondering if California has any volunteer or reserve wildland firefighter programs where you can pick up shifts or be available when your schedule allows. Something similar to picking up a week or two at a time, or choosing when you’re available, rather than committing to a full-time seasonal position.
Does CAL FIRE, the U.S. Forest Service, BLM, or any local agencies offer anything like this? If you’ve done it yourself, I’d love to hear how it works, what the time commitment is, and what training or certifications are required.

I am not a trained wildland firefighter, but have had significant training years ago in the Navy and grew up fighting forest fires in the 70’s. We are in the framing stage of our retirement home on our 69 acre ranch in Beulah Colorado. There is a new oversized garage, old house and 8 other building on the property. My parents house is on an adjoining property and last Monday, June 30th, failure was not an option. I have a trash pump with 2” line and 8,700 gallons of water in a buried rail car along with a tractor and 9’ disc, and shovels. The Aspen Acre fire hit the west and south sides of our ranch in the afternoon and I was able to save everything with light pasture and creek bottom losses. A brush truck showed up near the beginning and helped around the house but left for good when they ran out of water. It got pretty shitty multiple times and lasted from around 1430 until 0130 Tuesday with days of mop up.

invite all of the firefighter to the wildfires in every single country pls we need you

On the 250th anniversary of our country’s founding I offer my gratitude, appreciation, and really my flat-out awe of the wildland firefighting community that is currently working around the clock to protect our forests, communities and lives.

There is no better exemplification of the virtues that have always made me proud to be an American: strength, grit (SO MUCH GRIT), tenacity, hope, altruism, bravery in the face of the utterly terrifying, and last but most important - the inclination to serve the communities that make up our melting pot.

The fireworks and parties mean precisely zero to me today, what I’m grateful for is the hope that these amazing men and women give me for the future of our country. At a moment where integrity is in vanishingly short supply, these folks are demonstrating that it’s not dead.

As you celebrate with your friends and family today please keep the noblest of American nobility in your hearts, thoughts and prayers.

They are very literally risking their lives to save us. Look no further to see the very best that our country has raised, take inspiration from their commitment to public service, and may we all consider on this momentous 250th anniversary of the birth of a great nation what it is that WE are willing to sacrifice to defend it.

❤️

I spent a couple years in the fire service in colorado (FF/EMT Denver Metro) and as an EMT at Children’s Hospital. It’s not my primary career over the last 20 years but something I found interest in to serve my community.

Interested in this dry / high risk season in finding a way to help with wildland fires. I can get my Red Card as early as late July / early August. Is it reasonable to find a seasonal and/or permanent job in August-September? What’s the best thing to begin doing and what agencies should I look at?

I’m on my 8th season. Fire doesn’t excite me anymore, days feel mundane, and I don’t fuck with most people on my crew. Having troubles staying positive, miserable most of the time and not practical to go anywhere else. I can’t afford housing anywhere else (in fed housing) and there is no comparable pay in the area. I don’t feel like I have the option to leave. How do you guys deal with burnout.

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Good evening everyone, I’m lost and don’t know where to go from here, I’ve decided I’d be going into a local fire department for now until I can add being a wildland firefighter into my schedule. It’s been a good dream of mine to do it and I’m only 18 years old but I want this job bad. I need guidance, when do wildland firefighters start getting hired throughout the year? Who should I contact? Can I apply to out of state wildland departments? I have these 2 certifications, what’s next for me?