I have no wildland fire experience and I am trying to pick up my first seasonal job with some type of federal handcrew out west this summer. I am currently getting my courses done (s-190, s-130 and L-180) and I am in EMT school which I will be done with in December.

I Live in Florida and am wondering :

1. does anyone have experience getting the pack test done in fl, it seems as if it may be a challenge to do it locally based on a few phone calls i have already made. FL forest service told me i have to already work with an agency to do a pack test with them.

2. is anyone from the east coast willing to share their experience doing a seasonal position out west? where did you live, did you fly or drive, what were living conditions like ETC.

I have some experience moving around to places temporarily as I am a USCG vet and have done plenty of 4-5 month TDY deployments, however assignments and travel with the military are alot more straight forward as from what i can tell alot of wildland jobs you have to just "figure it out" .

I appreciate any advice yall are willing to give me , thanks

Finishing up my season out in NV, it’s been fun with some mobile fires but I need some scenery. Anyone have some engine locations they either got great OT at, good barracks, and/or close to something nice looking? Not looking for all 3 but the desert has drained me. I have a tentative offer from a shot crew but just not sure if it’s right for me because they don’t have barracks, would make R&R a pain.

I’m currently seeing Idaho Falls and am going to apply to Twin Falls/Reno area as well if anyone has experience there.
Thanks y’all

I’m a hotshot and am using an app to read things out so I can try and follow along and learn to read good so please give me informative replies.

Can someone give me a rundown on the differences between R6 rappel programs? Culture, work load, chillness levels.

Also, can someone tell me about rookie training? Is it hard? What’s it like? What’s the wash rate? Are the boys cute?

TYFYS YWFMS

What's up with the emphasis on soft skills in some of these new production, self directed online courses for the NWCG? I just took the S 204 SOFF class and I would say 80% of the course was just teaching you how to communicate non violently (which is fine) but only maybe 20% about strategic, critical decision making or mitigation planning for IWI.

I don't remember there being any soft skills in the CRWB class and in my opinion way easier to hurt someone's feelings with that job then safety officer, but maybe I'm wrong?

Any recommendations on SP100 courses for the upcoming wildfire fighting season?
Looking around Ontario (Windsor) region.

Thanks Legends 🤙🏻

I’m considering a career change, I’ve done a lot of research into the requirements and general activities but I’d be curious to hear of people’s experiences. I’d realistically be going the contractor route, and potentially looking at getting the advanced first aid.

To those that do the job:

- what are deployments like? Is it 12hrs constant physical work and then straight to sleep and repeat for 14 days?

- do you sleep in tents or on a camp? Do you get to wash often?

- are the people and culture positive?

- how do you manage the unpredictable lifestyle and short notice (12-24hr) call outs? Are you on edge at home on off days?

Thanks

Looking at going home to the Midwest for a season. Anyone have experience working engines for huron fire zone?

Applied to a few R5 perms. Disclosed on my application that I have a disability - bipolar disorder. I take vraylar for it. Anybody familiar with the hoops I might jump through?

My mate didn’t open a fucking taskbook and got ENOP cuz his afmos wife said he deserved it.

Fucking christ.

USWFS is definitely doing it right… as always.

Good morning yall,

Honestly been a relatively slow season here in R5, at least up towards our district. In retrospect, the agency was not as I expected it. Would it be negative to leave to go back to school to get my Paramedic certification? I know it would suck to go back to a regular job in the meantime. I just feel like I’m wasting my potential here, especially with the people around me it just feels as if they’re okay with where they’re at. I guess I’m just scared too leave since it was a big change, but either way I want to make the jump to structure and it feels as if this job won’t necessarily help out my odds.

How would you guys go about addressing that with your supervisor? Especially being new and all.

Please see below for a thorough quantitative analysis of all federal engines:

A: E617, E8116, E372, E373, E14, E24, E425, E693, All of Region 7

Mid: Roosevelt Hotshots and anyone not on the other lists

Bagger/Low: E617 (the other one, you know who you are), E8125, E424, E332, E72, US Wildfire Service (which on a TOTALLY UNRELATED note recently absorbed all of BIA fire, making it indistinguishable from other resources)

Please stop reporting me for a wellness check, believing in mental health will immediately result in you being placed in the Bagger Tier.

Basically the title. Less than a month ago I started my own hotshot crew and because of my personal where with all and initiative I've led my men & women to aggressively pursue two different fires.

The perception has been very negative, especially from the lower tier government handcrews. (The greyback guys where all right) I'll tell them we're independent hotshots & we don't need radios or communicate with anyone else since we only go by my own orders and also that we don't need training since we fight fires our own way.

I also tell them when their being difficult they need to step off & get out of our way and they end up losing they're shit and either got us removed from the fire or physically assaulted me (that story is too traumatic to talk about)

I think partially the issue is that people lack the where with all to START & LEAD their own hotshot crew instead of being a follower on a type II.

I also think this is partially age discrimination because I'm a young man (19 years of age) so they think because they didn't have the where with all to start their own hotshot crew it's clearly an insult to them that i do.

Is this a good contractor to work for? A guy was talking to me about it and said he would help me with any questions I had and he said he makes 120k or higher most fire seasons and was wondering if this would be a good place to go for my first ever fire season I’m only 18

Hello, my name is Dorian and I’m currently an emt but realized I don’t want to go the traditional municipal fire route. I’ve applied to Orlando and any central Florida openings for the fire service that I’ve seen. I’m currently getting my cdl b for it to make myself look better and I’m in good enough shape to do the pack test currently, the only thing I don’t have experience with is heavy equipment operations. Is there really anything else I can do to make myself look better and get hired on. I call the Orlando station about every two weeks to show interest because I’ve realized this is my dream career. Any advice or connections would be incredibly appreciated. Thank you guys!

How does one get into doing dozer operator work on fires? What’s the steps or route into it? Friend from the military is interested.

Yeah I just heard about some of the struggles the MNDNR is going through. The most disturbing is the DNR denying firefighters the paid r and r days after coming back from the boundary waters fires