By Brad Carlson
The Idaho Business Review (Boise, ID)
Copyright 2006 Dolan Media Newswires
It’s the busiest season in three years at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise. Forklift operator Jerin Jones recently cashed a paycheck for 130 hours of work. “That’s pretty standard for two weeks,” said Jones, 26. “It’s looking like one of the busiest fire seasons we’ve had. We haven’t seen it start this early for some time.”
Jones works at Great Basin Cache, one of the warehouses at the National Interagency Fire Center, which is adjacent to Boise Airport. Eight agencies staff the Fire Center - a one-of-a-kind operation in the U.S. that finds and dispatches the people and supplies needed to fight wildfires. The Fire Center is in Boise to be central to many classic fire locations. The Fire Center employs a lot of people, many at middle or upper-level pay grades. About 600 are working at the Fire Center now, during the peak July-through-September season, compared to 450 the rest of the year, Fire Center spokeswoman Jennifer Smith said.
Fire and land managers also fly in from other locations as needed. Firefighters typically apply for jobs in January and are hired through USA Jobs, Smith said. They complete a weeklong training program covering things like fire and fuel characteristics, weather tendencies, and firefighting safety and techniques, she said. They dig fire-line trenches, use tools and gear, start and contain a small fire, and complete a three-mile trek - while wearing a 45-pound pack - within 45 minutes. Firefighters must complete the pack-carry test even if they’re coming back from the previous season.
Firefighters can work nine to 10 months a year if they start in the Southeast section of the country and then move west, or even longer if they work on disaster-recovery jobs, Smith said. Jones said last year’s Gulf Coast hurricanes kept things hopping at the Fire Center until early December. Ken Frederick is a 14-year firefighter who now works at the Fire Center as a public affairs specialist. “Firefighting is still perceived as being a challenging and rewarding job, and a good opportunity to earn good money in a summer of work,” he said. Smith said temporary firefighters working as forestry aids and technicians earn $9.42 to $11.84 an hour. Permanent seasonal employees hired as forestry technicians and supervisory forestry technicians earn $11.84 to $14.66. The firefighters earn time-and-a-half for overtime and 25 percent hazard pay while working on the fire line, and receive full benefits while employed.
In the past five to eight years, Frederick has seen the traditionally young-person’s profession gain age and breadth of experience. Firefighters get involved in more prescribed burns, more complex fires and strategies, and more non-fire disasters, he said. In the past 10 years, he’s seen significant growth in contracting, which the government likes because it’s a pay-as-you-use approach, he said. But this year has been one of the busiest, and has kept contractors and employees alike very busy. “Now we are at preparedness-level 5. We haven’t been at PL-5 since 2003,” Smith said Aug. 21. On that day, 251 federal fire crews and 172 state crews were in the field throughout the country. PL-5 is the highest, most urgent level of preparedness. Smith, a former firefighter, said it reflects the Fire Center’s involvement with a large number of fires across many geographic areas. “It’s busy, and it’s exciting,” she said. “It’s always something different every day.”