Of the more than 4,240 total permanent positions in the state, 1,630 remain open, the data shows. But the vacancy rates are the highest in lower- to mid-level roles, which the longtime employee described as the “backbone” because they are critical to actively suppressing and stopping fires. The data shows that there are gaping holes across all levels and specialties of California’s Forest Service force, from emergency dispatchers to smoke jumpers. However, interviews with those on the ground across the country, documents, and data from several regions tell a different story, and historic fires are already raging. Since then, the US Forest Service, which employs most of the nation’s wildland firefighters, has been promising that the US will be prepared by this summer, traditionally considered the start of wildfire season. In April, wildland firefighter staffing issues caused an uproar when a top Forest Service official testified to concerned lawmakers that a major hiring initiative in California “went very well” when it hadn’t even started. In an email to BuzzFeed News, a Forest Service spokesperson said the agency is “still working to complete the final round of wildland firefighter hiring and on-boarding for the 2022 fire year and will not have final numbers until then.” “Without firefighters, it makes it harder to keep fires small and get there in time.” “It’s a pretty grim picture, and it’s trending worse,” a veteran Forest Service employee, who is familiar with the vacancy data and spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retribution, told BuzzFeed News.

Now, the data, first reported by BuzzFeed News, shows that California’s federal wildland fighting force is just 65%–70% staffed at the cusp of a summer that experts predict will be scorching and extremely dry, conditions that in recent years have resulted in catastrophic wildfires. Though a lack of fire personnel in California and across the US has been a problem for years, firefighters began leaving their jobs en masse in 2020 due to frustrations over low pay, inadequate benefits, poor living conditions, and an extreme toll on their mental and physical health against a backdrop of longer, more intense fire seasons. California will have a significant shortage of wildland firefighters as a potentially record-breaking hot, dry summer begins despite ongoing, concerted hiring efforts by the federal government, according to US Forest Service data obtained by BuzzFeed News.Īfter its annual spring hiring event, the state still has about 1,200 full-time openings, according to internal data reviewed by BuzzFeed News.

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