That made me laugh. 
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Zero chance Forest Service is 99% staffed using the approved national fire organization by unit. Don’t even know why they would want to say that. Maybe the well paid regional and national fire staff positions are 99% filled.
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There are forests in R5 who have less than 40% of their positions filled. and that number gets less and less with each round of hiring, ie we are losing them faster than we are replacing them. If the FS retention allowance goes away, i’m scared to see where we sit after the next Cal Fire hiring event.
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Calfire is now hiring FF1 year round. No more “Open & Closing” dates for FF1. The Perm FF2 & FAE positions get tested every 2yr year for eligibility. But the Fire Captain test has been given 3 times already in 2023. It is rumored there are over 200 Open and unfilled permanent FC positions statewide or an avg of 10 per unit. It’s the experienced AFEO, Squad Boss, FC, and IHC Supt that are leaving in unprecedented numbers. That level of experience and expertise cannot be replaced anytime soon. What the FS and other federal agencies are losing will take decades, if not ever to replace.
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I take it back. After hours and hours of catch-up, its probably better to back off from this scene than go through stress for nothing.
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Hey Everybody…It’s been a slow season so far and yes, we are all ready for some action, however, let’s please be mindful of our posts to keep them relevant and on point with the topic at hand. Scope creep on threads degrades the value and intend of the original poster and topic.
Carry on
- Keith
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Corpsmembers should be advised that tropical and subtropical heat and humidity conditions can combine to overheat your bod, especially when you’re trying to move quickly up an incline. They will want to shed protective gear and loosen straps beyond the point they are effective. Discipline and pacing are necessary to reduce heat exhaustion, even when responding to an imminent threat. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
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Precipitation forecasts are a bit variable, but flood advisories and warnings are being issued for Southern California and Arizona.
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We would hope PIOs and news media should be clear to disambiguate the California Conservation CORPS (CCC, or ‘the Cs’), who train and deploy a variety of specializations (natural resources, road and trail, backcountry, Type 1 Cal Fire Hand Crews, Flood Fighters, etc) from the California Conservation CAMP PROGRAM (of CBS’s “Fire Country” fame), which trains and deploys prisoners with LEO fire officers. Nobody wants the public to 911 a CCC crew because they thought they were escaped convicts, nor should we devalue the work done by CDCR crews because show business gets it wrong.
2023 CA Mobilization Guide: Chapter 30 - Crews
CCC is also doing training on Type 3 brush Engines, but IDK what the current status of that is, or if they have any deployable resources. The last two Cal Fire budgets have included positions for FCs and FAEs to work with CCC crews for something like 6 or more crews statewide last I read about it.
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SDU, RRU & BDU all have T1 CCC crews.
SDU has 1 crews out of the San Diego Fire Center
RRU has space for 5 T1 Crews at Los Pinos Fire Center
BDU has 1 Crew out of BDU HQ
SLU has also started to Staff Toro Fire Center with T1 CCC crews. NEU has CCC crews at Nevada Fire Center as does BTU at Magelia Fire Center.
I believe there are a total of 24-30 statewide under Calfire Supervison and Leadership.
Additionally, the Inland Fire Center in San Bernardino has 1-2 T2 CCC crews with BLM supervision and leadership.
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There are 32 CCC staffed/ CF leadership Type 1 handrews statewide. Currently 27 are staffed and typed out.
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Outstanding questions about Engines, agency interoperations and other matters might be directed to the Public Information Office at the Ventura Training Center in Oxnard. They do some broad spectrum teaching and training on a variety of career and specialization stuff that includes structural, vehicle accident, I think a little swift water, harbor, and all-hazard aspects of emergency response you might find with the different types of Cal Fire contract relationships with LG.
Interagency Ops on the Central Coast are complex; Monterey County is somewhat straightforward (MCRFD, BEU, Los Padres NF). SLO and SB Counties have nearly inverse relationships with Cal Fire. SLO’s county fire department is Cal Fire SLU, by contract (Highways 46, 41, 101 corridors through the Los Padres Range). On the other side of the county line, SB picks up what would otherwise be Cal Fire response area. VNC and SBC are more closely aligned, contract style wise, and do a lot of mutual aid and resource sharing.
GACC SouthOps and LPNF are represented by LPCC at Vandenberg (Hotshots) with coordination to Paso Robles Air Attack (CF AA, S2Ts) and the SMX tanker base (USFS AA, EU and CWN VLAT).
As we know, the default mode is roll to the fire first and let the IMTs (SBC Type 3 AHIMT) sort it out. That being said, I might imagine the Ventura Training Center PIOs would be in the know about quite a few things of this nature.
This video was shared by SLU this Spring. Note the somewhat iconic (SBC, VNC) helmet style.
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A Top 10 List: Reasons Why You Can’t Do That
by Bill Gabbart
In 1994 when I was working for the National Park Service I wrote an article for Ranger: The Journal of the Association of National Park Rangers, entitled The Top 10 List: Reasons Why You Can’t Do That. It was noticed by Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt who quoted several parts of it in an article he later wrote for Viewpoint, a newsletter that was distributed to all employees in the Department of Interior.
Here is the original article that I wrote for Ranger magazine:
A Top 10 List: Reasons why you can’t do that (wildfiretoday.com)
Far from undeserving boredom, Bill Gabbart’s writing was one of the things that got me interested in wildfire as a journalistic topic. I’d been to fires and disasters, and had a hobby interest in writing, but Bill showed me you could put the two together in a way that was fresh and engaging. I don’t write professionally, but if I did, studying Bill’s Wildfire Today archives would be a regular habit.
If audio/visual is your jam, Firestorm '77: The True Story of the Honda Canyon Fire is a masterclass in how to tell a compelling fire story with a bare minimum of creative excess.
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Quaerens Caveat (“let the seeker beware”)
I have known people who automatically said no to almost every suggestion, no matter how trivial. Saying yes meant they had to make a decision.
I would like to have met Bill Gabbart in person. He must have been an amazing dinner guest and story teller. We don’t have that option, today. Pieces like the Ranger article often raise more questions than they answer. Maybe, that’s the point.
As a wildland firefighter, researcher and journalist, Gabbart and his works stand tall. Journalists are full of questions. It’s in the job description. Wildland firefighters live with their heads on a swivel. That’s also in the job description. Wildland firefighters, journalists, researchers and all-around adventurers are often seekers and searchers. And finders.
This age recommends competencies in using search tools and data, but sometimes it’s for their own ends. The tools we use are often provided by vendors whose agendas interfere with our own, with uncertain consequences. Researching data graphs and ‘semantic’ systems taught me about the occasionally hidden arbitrariness of a chosen data point of reference (NWCG PMS205 owl:NamedGraph). Recommended content is sometimes poorly recommended, leading to exit or distraction.
Trivialization is no trivial topic. There are time constraints. The evidence from even this very site is that, in work, sometimes one needs to adjust one’s sight picture, resettle the goggles on your face, adjust some straps. Have a sip of water to dry your throat. Unfortunately, we have lost the opportunity to sit Gabbart down and question him a little bit about the decisions he made that led him to the conclusion I quoted, above. An opportunity cost with no refund.
Like search and rescue and why USAR should be done by people trained to it. It may be an exaggeration, but say one comes across the most profound artifact of anthropological significance in a search for survivors, one might make a mental note of it, at best, when the clock is running out on those who remain alive. Trivialization could be fatal. Not to the seeker, but to the sought.
I’m sure, if we had Bill Gabbart here to answer such things, he’d be quick to acknowledge the point. But we don’t. He will be missed.
Two kinds of people in this world
Winners, losers
I lost my power in this world
Because I did not use it
So I go insane like I always do
And I call your name, she’s a lot like you
Two kinds of trouble in this world
Living, dying
I lost my power in this world
And the rumors are flying
So I go insane like I always do
And I call your name, she’s a lot like you
– Lindsey Buckingham, “Go Insane”
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1 circumstances force you to do things a new way.
2 there’s 10 way to reach the end goal of what it says in the manual.
3-4 it’s better to ask forgiveness than ask permission so long it presents an improvement or returns things normal safe levels.
5 no one has the time, you have to make the time.
6 we bought better tools since the last time
7 we bought the stuff last year and it’s sitting in the warehouse.
8 the public may not like where the lake bouy line is but I don’t like the liability from parents sending there kids through boat windshields when they hit a rock.
9 but that other guy knows how and maybe he can teach me.
10 we’re just fixing what was already there so you don’t need the form.
From a California state parks employee.
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This is sort of related to what I was talking about on the Wildland Firefighter Entry Level Pay - #1231 by ghost7 topic about the cost of living in Region V. Where building more affordable studio and single apartment housing for wildland firefighters on USFS land is what I was describing, according to the SD Union-Tribune Editorial Board, BLM might be in a better position to take action, sooner. Where housing is a hot topic in Region V, generally, more specifically, housing on, or near, BLM land would seem to be on target for entry level BLM firefighters.
Opinion: To spur California housing construction, state should back bill to free up federal land
The U.S. government is by far the biggest landowner in the Golden State, and
much of that land is not national parks, pristine forests or military bases
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Providing affordable housing to employees sounds great, and is a great idea. It can be, Sort of. A couple of points though:
Having had employees living in employer owned housing, once they move in they’re your supervisory headache 24/7. Anything they do after hours, loud parties, firefighter stuff, becomes your headache. Then they have to comply with things related to pets, family members, friends moving in, hobbies that occur outside like wrenching on junk cars, gardening, etc.
There’s the cost of housing construction. You think 4 walls and a roof? Interior sprinklers, CA mandates on solar, water conservation, the cost of supplying water, connecting to the power grid, sewage disposal, ADA compliance. You’d think most wildland firefighters don’t really need wheelchair ramps, you’d be wrong.
Then you try to make it affordable. Employee thinks they’ve cut a fat hog, living in a decent place for 300 bucks a month! When the comparable going rate is 1200. Wait a minute, that’s a taxable fringe benefit. They just got a 900 dollar a month pay raise without getting any money, IRS wants their share of that.
Employee’ gets fired, or just laid off from a seasonal position? If they don’t move out on their own, now you’ve got to go about eviction proceedings, which after Covid moratoriums still take months to kick someone out.
Providing affordable housing can be a tremendous recruitment and retention tool (but you better not call it that) but it carries a lot of baggage.
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Remember, it is on federal land, CA or other requirements can be ignored. Not the first time.
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Those are good points. Its not magic. Maybe, just another engine on the plane, so to speak. In the case of outright sale of land, like Vegas, some of those problems don’t become yours, but there’s compliance and more competition from non-agency people willing to commute. I’m not sure how you would go about reserving part of a private development for agency employees without agency property management. Sometimes, more nearby supply mitigates cost, sometimes not so much.
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Might depend if it’s exclusive, concurrent or proprietary federal jurisdiction.