Where To Us Forestry Service Firefighters Carry Their Red Cards

Wildland firefighting agencies operate at the federal level (National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of State Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Diplomacy), the country level (Dept. of Forestry, Dept. of Natural Resources), and at the local level where forest lands tie in with the incorporated area. Although each agency has its own hiring processes, the following is a general guide to becoming a wildland firefighter.

Grooming:

Physical:

Firefighters are held to rigorous fettle standards equally much of the job occurs in the outdoors. The Piece of work Capacity Test is a series of tests used to decide the capabilities of an individual and ensure he/she is physically able to perform the duties of wildland firefighting. This test is required by every federal bureau/bureau before an Incident Qualification Card (red bill of fare) tin can be issued.
It is also recommended that an private notice out if there are any boosted standards required of a position and what they are so every bit to prepare in the off season. This tin can be done by contacting the specific location of potential employment (i.e., local state management office).

Educational:

Specific educational requirements are set by each bureau. There are multiple areas of academic study that provide credible coursework that is related to diverse positions within wildland fire. The following are examples of these areas of study:
- Forestry
- Agriculture
- Crop or Plant Science
- Wild animals Management
- Range Management or Conservation
- Watershed Management
- Natural Resources (except marine fisheries and oceanography)
- Outdoor Recreation Management
- Civil or Forest Applied science
- Wildland Burn Scientific discipline
- Soil Science

Employment:

Wildland firefighter positions are mostly advertised in the off-season (Oct-Dec) and hired as burn down season approaches (January-Mar).
Individuals seeking employment should think well-nigh applying by Sept/Oct as many announcements shut in January.
Larn more about task openings past visiting USAJobs, keyword: wildland burn.
Contact the location of potential employment (i.e., local land management office) with additional questions regarding qualifications or standards of a specific position.

photo of wildland firefighter with drip torch

Helpful Links

Agency Websites:

U.Due south. Department of the Interior – Wildland Burn down Jobs
U.Due south. Wood Service – FireHire
National Park Service – Fire & Aviation Management Jobs
U.S. Woods Service – Fire & Aviation Management Employment
Bureau of Land Management – Fire & Aviation
Bureau of Indian Affairs – Co-operative of Wildland Fire Direction
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Wildland Burn down

Training:

NWCG Incident and Position Standards Commission
Wildland Fire Safe Training Annual Refresher (WFSTAR)
Interagency Aviation Training
Wildland Fire Learning Portal (WFLP)
Alternative Pathways to NWCG Qualification

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Additional information is available from the National Interagency Fire Centre (NIFC) FAQs.

⇒ How do I become a firewoman?

Seasonal Firefighter

People interested in a job as a seasonal firefighter must employ to the agency they are interested in working for. Each agency (Agency of Country Management, National Park Service, Forest Service, Agency of Indian Affairs, U.S. Fish and Wild animals Service, State of Idaho, etc.) has its ain process for hiring seasonal employees. Yous may want to consider applying to more than one bureau.

To get a wildland firefighter, you lot must exist betwixt the 18 and 35 years erstwhile and pass a concrete fitness examination. The average firefighter is paid $8.00/hour. They sometimes earn fourth dimension and a one-half or risk duty pay.

About agencies hire a fair number of employees on a seasonal basis (generally from May to September). Most without exception, regardless of the type of work seasonal employees are hired to do, anybody receives basic firefighter training. During seasons where there are a lot of fires, people who have had bones fire training are chosen upon to help organized fire crews. If you do an outstanding job, regardless of what function you lot are in, you will exist noticed and your chances of getting a fire task adjacent season will be greatly increased.

Professional Full-time Fireman

Bank check with the agency you are interested in and obtain an information package on how to apply for these types of jobs.

⇒ What is a hotshot fire crew?

These highly trained, skilled and experienced crews are fabricated up of firefighters who have had at least 1 season of experience every bit a wildland fire fighter. In that location are 68 hotshot crews nationwide - a total of i,360 firefighters. These firefighters are generally given assignments on the toughest part of a fire and apply a multifariousness of specialized hand tools, including chainsaws and fireline explosives. The coiffure members serve in all phases of wildland firefighting – building firelines, called-for out, setting backfires and mopping up. Hotshot crew members are employed for a minimum of 130 days.

⇒ What experience do I need to become a smokejumper?

Smokejumpers are airborne firefighters that parachute from planes to attack wildland fires in remote and inaccessible areas. Generally, smokejumpers are the initial assail on remote, inaccessible fires. To become a smokejumper, yous need one yr of general outdoor experience. Included in this one year of experience must be three months of wildland burn down experience on an organized coiffure. Competition for smokejumper jobs in recent years is resulting in applicants with four to 5 seasons of wildland firefighting experience competing for the very limited number of jobs that get bachelor each year.

⇒ What is the part of the engine crews?

Engine crews are made up of 3-5 wildland firefighters. A typical wildland fire engine is a heavy-duty off route vehicle able to acquit up to 800 gallons of h2o. Engines also comport foam to apply on wildland fuels. The foam can also exist used to protect the exterior walls of a structure.

⇒ What is the function of the hand crews?

These crews consist of about 20 individuals who have been organized and trained and are supervised principally for operational assignments on an incident. Generally, these crews are made upwards of people who have been trained to fire fight, but whose everyday job is something other than fire, i.e., timber, wilderness rangers, recreation, range. There are approximately 500 manus crews in the Usa.

⇒ What is a helitack crew?

Helitack crews are peculiarly trained in the tactical and logistical apply of helicopters for burn suppression. These crews tin be rapidly deployed and are oft the kickoff to reply to a wildland fire. Helitack crews are also trained to rappel from a hovering helicopter in areas where the terrain or vegetation does non allow the helicopter to state. A primary task for the crew is to load and unload slings of equipment and supplies needed for firefighting.

⇒ What kinds of aircraft are used in fire suppression activities?

Helicopters

In a typical yr, at that place are 15-20 heavy and medium helicopters nether contract in the Us for wildland firefighting purposes. As well, there are an additional 175 under contract on a call when needed ground. Helicopters support firefighters on the ground past dropping water, cream or retardant on flaming trees, brush and even structures to cool hotspots and forbid a fire from spreading.

Airtankers

Airtankers are large planes fitted with tanks for transporting and dropping burn down retardant or water. Their capability ranges from two,000 gallons to the larger aircraft that are capable of delivering iii,000 gallons. Airtankers drop their load in a long string, creating a line of retardant. The purpose of the retardant is to wearisome the burn down down in order to give footing back up forces the opportunity to build firelines. A pink dye is added to give the airplane pilot an idea of where the drop landed. In a typical twelvemonth, 40-50 airtankers are under contract to country and federal agencies for wildland firefighting purposes.

Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System (MAFFS)

A MAFFS unit is a pressurized three,000 gallon tank system containing either water or a h2o-based retardant designed to fit into a C-130 aircraft. MAFFS units tin only be utilized when in that location is imminent danger to life and property and other aeriform resources are exhausted or committed.

Atomic number 82 Planes

These planes are used to atomic number 82 the airtankers to and through their retardant drops and are also used for aerial reconnaissance of fire areas.

Infrared Shipping

These are aircraft equipped with highly specialized infrared mapping systems. The Infrared scanners locate hotspots inside and outside a burn's perimeter. Infrared scanners can pinpoint a half dozen-inch hotspot from an altitude of 8,000 feet (i.5 miles) to a higher place ground level and can cover nigh i million acres in one 60 minutes. Flights are by and large flown afterwards sunset and before sunrise when temperatures between the terrain and the fire differ the most, making information technology easier to pinpoint estrus sources.

⇒ What other wildland firefighting resources are being utilized?

Remote Automated Weather Stations (RAWS)

RAWS units collect, shop and forrard six critical weather elements hourly, via a Geostationary Operational Ecology Satellite (GOES) 22,300 miles above the equator, to a estimator system located at the National Interagency Burn down Center in Boise, Idaho. There are approximately 1,150 RAWS strategically positioned throughout the U.s.a.. The types of weather data involved include wind speed and direction, wind gusts, precipitation, air temperature, relative humidity and fuel wet. Resource managers also use RAWS to monitor environmental atmospheric condition and air quality. Some RAWS units are used as early on-alert alarm systems for things such as floods, mud slides or hazardous textile levels.

Incident Management Teams

This is a team of highly trained, experienced individuals who are organized to manage large and/or circuitous incidents.

Firefighter Handtools

Nigh of the handtools used by firefighters are combination tools. Throughout the years, wildland firefighters have invented handtools that serve more than but one function. Handtools used by firefighters must exist effective, efficient, versatile, portable, elementary, easy to maintain and repair and standardized and then they can be pooled, traded and transported quickly.

Pulaski - This is a combination tool, ax and mattock invented by Ed Pulaski in 1910. This tool enables firefighters to cutting copse and limbs with the ax side and to dig and scrape with the mattock side.
McLeod - This combination heavy duty rake and hoe tool is named after Ranter Malcolm McLeod. Firefighters employ this tool to cut through matted litter and duff and clearing loose surface materials.
Ax - The most common 1 being the double-bitted, which is used for cutting trees and limbs. The single-bitted or poleax is common in the east and is used for cutting copse, limbs, and for driving wedges.
Shovel - This is a combination tool - the edges are sharpened so that the user can chop down small trees, cut limbs and roots. Firefighters also use shovels to scape away needles and other duff as they construct firelines down to mineral soil. They are specifically designed for fire employ and are the lightest, yet most constructive shovel for all-around utilize.
Drip Torch - Firefighters employ this device for igniting backfires or burnouts.
Backpack Pump - Firefighters conduct these backpacks, normally made from collapsible neoprene, during mop up operations. They are constructive for cooling downwardly hotspots.

⇒ In one case a burn down starts, how is it managed and organized?

How agencies reply to a reported incident is well organized and planned in accelerate. As the incident requires, additional resources are dispatched from the local agency. One time the incident goes beyond the local agency's ability to continue supplying resources, requests for additional resources are forwarded to the nearestGeographical Area Coordination Center (GACC).

There is a full of 10 GACCs beyond the United States, including Alaska. These centers will locate and acceleration additional firefighters and support personnel throughout the geographic area. The GACCs are equally follows:

Alaska - Fort Wainwright, Alaska
Eastern Surface area - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Great Basin - Salt Lake City, Utah
Northern California - Redding, California
Northern Rockies - Missoula, Montana
Northwest - Portland, Oregon
Rocky Mountain - Lakewood, Colorado
Southern Area - Atlanta, Georgia
Southern California - Riverside, California
Southwest Area - Albuquerque, New United mexican states

When the resources needs for an incident, or incidents, exceed the adequacy of the GACC, resource orders are then forwarded to the National Interagency Coordination Center (NICC) located at the National Interagency Fire Eye (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho. The NICC is an interagency operation that provides logistic support and intelligence reporting to all wildland management agencies. NICC dispatches crews, overhead personnel, aircraft, supplies and services across the U.S. and Canada and to other foreign countries based upon requests from the U.S. Bureau for International Development (USAID), Office of U.Southward. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA). These requests are facilitated and coordinated past the USFS, International Programs, Disaster Help Back up Plan (DASP). DASP is a cooperative programme between OFDA and the USFS.

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