A temporary but vital firefighter pay bump, implemented as part of US president Joe Biden’s 2021 infrastructure bill, will expire at the end of September. Without it, firefighters say the US risks exacerbating a crisis of burnout and retention at a time when fires are becoming bigger, more dangerous and harder to control.
My coworker is a wildland firefighter who operates out of our office in Hillsborough County, FL. (I work in conservation and environmental lands management) He makes $15.5 an hour and has to go to food banks to feed his kids plus is probably going to lose his house. He takes every opportunity to work overtime on burns.
Wildland firefighters are exposed to known carcinogens in the course of thier genuinely dangerous job. It is industry standard to use a bandana as face protection.
Poor men and women, sometimes prisoners, sometimes soldiers, are ground up and spit out in that line if work. In any just system we would pay heros a living wage. In this one we just let them die, broken and pennyless.