We Cannot Pay These Firefighters Enough For What They Do

[TheMastersNemesis]

We cannot pay these firefighters enough whether they be full time professional or seasonal who fight these dangerous fires. Because of the extreme dryness of the forests, these fires are much more dangerous than they ever were. They are prone to crown and explode like gasoline more quickly than ever.

These workers will breathe toxic air for weeks and even months on end during an ever growing fire season that spreads well into fall. And they spend a lot of their time protecting homes and property as well as the forest. The pay is meager compared to the effort they must expend. To date the growing fire danger seems to threaten to strip the ability of our firefighting resources to respond to all the fires that are burning.

[teddy51]

1. Yeah, and they don't even have health coverage and we pay them in the $11.00 an hour range.

How does one get a wonderful job like that?

[Warpy]

2. A lot of them are from the reservations around here

and seasonal work fighting fires is about all the employment they can get because the casinos can't hire everybody. They say the money is good and supports them for the whole year since their shifts are so long (16 hours at a crack on average).

They should be paid better than stockbrokers, IMO, but this country has been upsidedown and backwards for so long that I doubt they're getting much more than ten an hour.