Four months after retiring from a 31-year career in wildland firefighting, Riva Duncan addressed members of Congress while holding back tears. “I have grown weary of losing amazing friends and colleagues, and I have grown impatient with inaction,” she said, her voice wavering but clear. “The US is burning, wildland firefighters are struggling, and some are even dying. The time for reform is now.” Duncan talked about the stress these federal employees face, about friends struggling with suicidal thoughts, and her experience bringing fallen firefighters home to their families. Some of the challenges she described stemmed from the unique conditions firefighters faced in 2020 as they dealt with COVID-19 while historically destructive fires spread across the West. Duncan was a chief fire staff officer at the time, and she says more firefighters in her program approached her with mental health distress and other issues than at any point in her career. Those issues run deep, she explained. There’s the salary, which starts at $13.45 an hour for the seasonal workers that make up about 30 percent of the workforce. There’s the lack of benefits to address the physical and mental tolls of the job. And the job title isn’t even “wildland firefighter,” as they’re colloquially known, but the generic “forestry technician,” a description that does not even classify them as first responders or mention the word “fire.” All of that is against the backdrop of a worsening fire landscape, as conditions created by climate change and a century of suppression policies turn fire season into a year-round event.
Source: Wildfires Have Changed. Why Hasn’t Firefighting? | Sierra Club
