LG has the same staffing problems as the CF & the LMA’s. The fact is demographic change as the population ages has resulted in a shrinking work force. The old adage “A rising tide floats all boats” has been replaced by the Cannibalism of increasing demand on a decreasing workforce.
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100% agree. I think on the LG/CF contract side we need to look at the services we offer. I’m addition to lack of staffing we are running our people into the ground when on shift.
We need to recognize that the fire dept does not have to be the solution to every problem. How many calls do we run where the only radio traffic we transmit is, “confirm the water district is en route, confirm the gas company is en route……and so on and so on.”
My agency still starts us to calls where we have no authority to even do anything. Example: keys locked in a car with no one inside the car. That call is the job of private industry and in CA it’s against the law for us to take that work away from them. And yet, we still send an engine to essentially drive over there and tell the RP, we can’t do anything.
I think that we need to make the job more attractive. I think most people that come into this job are happy to run the emergencies but we are burning our people out trying to the the public’s Swiss Army knife.
We have always been the type of people that are proud of the fact that we “make it work.” At some point though we are allowing the politicians to take advantage of our good natures. We need to have some tough conversations with policy makers about the fact that this model is no longer sustainable.
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“Our Agency is Calif Fire Dept” Where have we heard that before.
I agree with you 100% about burnout because of superfluous calls. HOWEVER, the politicians who organized labor supports, promises more and more to the masses to get votes.
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California is sending engine strike team(s) to Montana. Is this really a good idea given the fire conditions we are currently dealing with?
No it’s not. And on top of that it makes more guys be stuck on at home. If departments are UTFing for CA fires why the hell are we sending things out of state?
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Yes because that is what neighbors do. Ten engines in the grand scheme of things is negligible to California. Last year we had personnel and equipment from many states assisting us.
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Anyone know what Dept. is sending them?
Under normal conditions I would agree. This year and in these conditions I don’t think it’s prudent. At the end of the day the tax payers of California pay for us to fight fire in California. I understand we have agreements that go both ways. But those also have stipulations that say we only help each other when we can and not at the expense of the home front.
Also, this is a 180 degree change from how I have felt my entire career until this year.
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San Mateo County sent their Type VI’s. San Bruno, SSF, Central and 2 from San Mateo Consolidated.
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Unless I missed something, the body of the article only mentions 1 Ca strike team and 2 TF from Utah,
Differing from the title .
Brilliant journalism
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There is 20 times the number of fires in Montana than there are in California right now (although lacking the severity of Dixie/Fly……for the moment).
The Northern Rockies are unable to order IMTs for large fires in the WUI because there are literally no firefighters other then one or two hand crews or engines to manage a 500 acre timber fire. I’m not talking about wilderness fires either. It’s a thing.
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What we have seen in many years past is new recruits coming from son’s and daughter’s of Fire Department personnel who have watched their father’s/mother’s career. In more recent years we have seen those same potential recruits have seen how the negative impacts of their lives have been with forced O.T. and parents missing family gatherings and special events. We have lost many of those young adults seeing the FS as a career choice. We’ve also watched how the young adults today just have no motivation and simply don’t want to work hard labor or long hours. The Fire Service needs to do a deep dive as to what a new recruit may look like today and how it helps itself in attracting them. The work force has changed so drastically that the FS hasn’t kept up. It’s becoming a very serious issue as we’ve seen this year. Combine that with the USFS issues, CF employees leaving to municipal agencies, and retirements it’s become a full fledged emergency in its own rights.
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We have been trying since the start of the Bootleg to send out our type 3. Unfortunately, in our region we have only 2 depts that are available to send out a type 3. The rest have such horrible staffing issues their men and women are working 96/48 schedules right now just to support their own City.
On top of that the fire service is very very young. Most of our captains have children under 4 years old. That being said, none of them want to become STENs because they would rather be local and close to home to support their families or pregnant wives and choose to just work the station OT to back fill.
Along with being a very young fire service (I think our median age is 30) most of our firefighters don’t have that CALFIRE experience that so many of us got when we wanted to become firefighters. It’s how a lot of us fell in love with wildland fires and camping and sleeping in the dirt. Calfire isn’t attractive anymore to rookies trying to get their feet wet since they can get a $100k a year LG job with little to no experience. I’ve had MANY of our young firefighters openly say “I have zero interest to go out of county.” Those same firefighters refuse to get their s290, type 3 task books started, anything to do with wildland because they want to avoid it all together. 24 hour shifts, 15k ft hose lays, hiking, and no AC or regular meals are some things I have heard… total change from the oral board am I right?
Along with that, I have seen a rapid decline of 20 something year olds coming to ask questions about being a firefighter. When those Gen Z kids see that a girl on FansOnly can sell pictures of herself and make $20k a month (low end) or they see a guy who plays video games on YouTube all day make $20k a month in sponsors why would a job where you never sleep right ever again and extremely labor intensive and requires a lot of education, why would that be appealing?
Back to our young Captains, many feel they lack the time and experience to become a STEN or safety or any type of over head position because they want to be in their position for a few years before going out of county or taking those classes.
Just got off shift but hopefully that rant makes sense. Another cup of coffee for me 
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This sounds all too familiar.
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Nice to see some people get the big picture. I was in K12 edtech for 18 years and near the last few years the district I was in was trying to get more vocational “real life application” into the classroom at a younger age, 7-8th grade even. We could see the paradigm shift and complementing desires from both society (local welding shop ready to pay huge $$ out-of-school with 10 openings and nobody skilled to hire), and the kids (answering the age-long how is “this” relevant?) We were the only district in 4-5 counties up here even thinking about this. That’s not to brag, that’s to explain how rare this idea was/is still. College isn’t for everyone. Education is in an odd in-between of the 80-90-00’s of pushing everyone toward college, and not sure how to fill (or they do but they aren’t tooled up) the societal need of vocational skills. Mike Rowe is huge proponent of this.
Combine that with the current economic reality. Kids aren’t stupid. We plaster a generational name to them and sneer at them when they graduate with underwater basket weaving degree “because college,” saddled with a massive debt that is more than their parent’s home mortgage, and enter a job market with stagnant wages and health insurance that overrides doctor’s decisions, which is tied to employment instead of being stand-alone. Kids aren’t blind when they see I could pay for my college tuition with my part time minimum wage $5.75 job in late 90’s and still pay rent for a little bachelor pad….wages are severely out of whack with today’s prices.
Kids look at some of these agencies who pay pennies, risk life and limb and beat the heck out of their young bodies with a for-profit health insurance system that they’d need to heavily count on in order to even survive retirement, if they make it that far or can afford it with the constant gutting of government funding. What security is there in that? There’s public service, and then there’s just plain being taken advantage of.
In short, kids need better tools, and wages/health care/security need to catch up and be there when they step into the job market. They’re vastly out of sync.
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I’m not sure I agree with the notion that all is bad, salaries, hours, benefits, long assignments, blah blah.
I for one retired from CALFIRE after a very long, outstanding rewarding career that was hard, sweaty, stressful, took time away from my family and did not allow me to go the lake and drink beer every weekend.
BUT, I have an outstanding retirement, and proud career to look back on and a son with a college degree that my wife and I paid 100% for.
It is all about what you are willing to do and the work ethic that comes with it. I am tired of hearing “I will stay here in the recliner making overtime and make big bucks while you stupid guys and girls go hump hose and cut line.”
That is a work ethic to be proud of for sure folks.
There are some things that need adjusting sure. It is a dangerous job, it will take a toll on your health and family life but I would never change a damn thing about my career. Proudest years of my life short of the birth of my kids.
One last thought , we keep talking about the fire service and the problems with the workforce. What about our proud military folks, they get shot at and make less than any of us. I do not know a single proud veteran that would buy some of the excuses we are hearing. If this is the case then we are truly in trouble as a country when it comes time to suck it up and defend her.
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Bro, glad you got out and that you had a great career. That being said, Please come tell my personnel that are literally working 14 on 2 off and back to 14 on in the station that same thing and see how they respond. Please come tell them that they shouldn’t be tired working in stations where single engine companies run over 5k calls a year and see if that helps them be ready to jump on the rig for another 15 hits. Maybe you can convince their wives not to leave them since they are tired of being single mothers for all intents and purposes. Maybe you can watch their kids grow up since they don’t get to.
I understand what you’re trying to say here but it simply does not match the reality on the ground for those of us that currently work on the floor.
What I want for my guys is to look back on their career the same way you look back on yours. But if we continue with the “200 years of tradition unimpeded by progress” mentality we will be lucky if we even staff the rigs in the future.
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Understood
I retired just recently, and did everything you say is happening, every year. Nothing has really changed in the grand scheme of things.
14 and off 2 is something I would have loved, try 21 and 2. It’s part of the job, 8 or 10 days a month is NOT what they signed up for I’m sorry.
I would live to sit with them and have a coffee and talk about sacrifice in the face of a public service job.
So instead of crying about what is wrong with our profession ( and I mean in general, not at you), please present some reasonable, effective, cost effective, options for what we are facing. And when you say pay us more, how much? What is the limit, because I can say my bloody taxes in CA are way out of control as it is.
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No offense taken. I’m not the sensitive type. I have offered a number of solutions beyond simply just throwing money at the problem. I have a post above that includes recruiting, changing the sheer amount of call types we respond to, and a few other items.
I also think that there are some potential differences in what we are talking about due to the fact that our agency is so varied in mission and work location.
May I ask what solutions you would suggest? Because the hiring pool we have and the work pool we have are what they are. And I’m truly asking because something has to give. Lastly I would point out that I’m not a Jr member of the dept either and nearly all of my peers (again small circle due to the size of CF) all feel the same I do about what’s happening to our people.
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