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Southern California just suffered one of the most destructive wildfires in its history—and it happened outside of what is typically considered wildfire season for the region. With the state staring down conditions that could heighten the risk of further flames, California could use all the help it could get. Unfortunately, it won’t be able to look to the federal government to help. President Donald Trump’s executive order that placed a hiring freeze on federal workers applies to seasonal firefighters, per NBC News, meaning the government won’t be ramping up its staff to prepare for future blazes.
That is…not ideal. Trump’s executive order that he signed on January 20 does offer an exemption to positions related to “public safety” but somehow firefighters do not apply. According to NBC’s conversations with people working within the Bureau of Land Management, they have been told to “hold all offers related to fire positions.”
Typically, they would be ramping up staffing that usually includes 15,000 full-time and temporary firefighters who are available to provide fuel management, combat wildland fires, and help in any region that is experiencing emergency conditions. Some BLM offices were already starting the process of hiring their summer workforce, per NBC, when the order came down and put a stop to it. Because the roles are federal positions, there is often an extensive background check involved in the hiring process that requires offices to start early in order to have staff in place for wildfire season.
Exacerbating the situation, as highlighted by the Washington Post last month, is the deferred resignation offer that the Trump administration has extended to its federal workforce, including firefighters. The offer allows federal employees to resign with pay through September. When the offer was extended to federal firefighters, it landed in their inbox basically immediately after they had wrapped up helping to contain the California wildfires—not exactly the show of appreciation they deserved. At this point, it’s unclear how many firefighters took the offer, but any at all would represent a blow to a workforce that is already understaffed and has no support on the way thanks to the hiring freeze.
With the threats of wildfires growing more dangerous and more common in months that previously saw few fires, California is looking to turn its seasonal staff of firefighters into full-time employees. A bill introduced earlier this week would extend 3,000 temporary hires into full-time state employees. (The state also uses the labor of nearly 1,000 incarcerated people who are tasked as serving as firefighters while getting paid as little as $5.80 per day.) But at this stage, the region needs a lot more help than that. It just won’t be coming from the Trump administration.
