Trump’s federal hiring freeze halts onboarding of federal firefighting crews ahead of wildfire season



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Federal Higher Freez, imposed by President Donald Trump, has influenced the hiring of a key group of federal workers: firefighters.

This frozen comes at a critical time, when a fire department across the country usually boarded thousands of seasonal federal firefighters to prepare wildfire in spring and summer.

“It will be really bad, really faster,” said Ben McLean, a federal hands -on staff captain and board member. Grass Roots Wildland Firefighters.

“When there is a fire season, we will have a shortage of personnel,” McLean told CNN on Friday. “The example we have seen for the past few decades is making us quite sure that it will prove to be a huge season of fire again.”

Federal Higher Frozen, started by One of the executive orders The President signed his office on the first day, ordered that no federal civilian positions be formed and no vacant position could be fulfilled.

Federal firefighters are an integral part of the country’s firefighting capacity. Admission Department In 2024, 5,780 employed Federal Wayland Land Fire personnel, while American forest service More than 11,300 employees.

According to McLean, the federal firefighters “respond to the fire at the whole nation and internationally.” “The federal government is the only source that does so and is like a half.”

According to McLean, the majority of firefighters working by the federal government are seasonal, which is kept as permanent or temporary employees. He explained that every year, before the summer fire season, these employees have to be reproduced.

“All this has been stopped right now, and in later date, no wiggles in the schedule,” said McLean, to restart the job process and get ready for the height of the fire season. No Rome “.

“We do not have the ability to snatch our fingers and just bring them back,” he said.

Frozen means that fire trucks in Utah can stay with two trucks instead of four or five – and some trucks will not be staffed at all, According to KSL associated with CNN.

The Interior Department, which hires firefighters through the Bureau of Land Management, told CNN in a statement that it was “implementing the executive order in President Donald Jay Trump’s federal civilian manpower.”

The US forest service told CNN that “Wildland Firefighting positions are considered public safety positions” and the Department of the White House Office of Performance and Personal Management “is actively working” –

The nail fire, which described the forest service as “a key partner”, told CNN that “it is unknown at the time how it would affect the protection of federal land in Frozen California.”

Low and lower salary

Freeze also comes when the fire department across the country has already faced staff shortages. In Los Angeles, where devastating forest fires killed dozens of people in January and destroyed thousands of homes, the fire department is less staff than almost any other major city, one for each thousand residents. Is a low firefighter.

And the federal firefighters have also struggled to maintain staff, the main reason for this is that they are “badly low salaries”, which of federal firefighters and other land management employees for the Federal Federation of Federal Employees Representatives, according to Steve Guterres. Federal According to Gutters, firefighters can earn only $ 15 per hour. A bill in Congress currently This will increase the salary of the firefighters.

“No one does to become a billionaire,” he told CNN on Saturday. ” “They prevent communities from burning and save lives every day.”

The federal government among the federal government causes frozen “mistrust” in the federal government.

He said, “They have their backs right now.

The longer the frozen will continue, the more likely the firefighters will be waiting for a revenue for the season.

Gutters said, “It is very likely that we can lose all skilled employees, who are skilled resources for which US taxpayers have paid other entities, and have never recovered. “ “We’ll never see our return on investment.”

Trump’s executive order explains that he is not banned from “maintaining essential services, and hiring services for national security, homeland protection, and public safety.

The impact on firefighters comes because the White House does not say that firefighters fall under these “essential services” and thus guarantee freezing from frozen.

“We need to know soon that if the Wineland is intended to get immunity from freezing the firefighters,” he said.

Similarly, the Gutters said, “We have not heard anything from the agency, whether they have filed an exemption or not, because there has been no discussion,” referring to both the Home Department and the Department of Agriculture.

McLean said the frozen created a “lasting uncertainty” and anxiety among federal firefighters, who already work in dangerous, high stress conditions, and short notes to fight dangerous forest fire But travel across the country.

“When emergency respondents play a role in the political theater, they do not perform well, and it seems that we are,” he said.

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