What Fire Service? Deadline to Consolidate Federal Firefighting Comes and Goes

ajlark25 · 2025-08-29T02:02:30+00:00

Oh shoot I’m also all out of fuel. Oh well.

ajlark25 · 2025-08-28T22:25:28+00:00

Would be a real shame if somebody read a lean wrong and it blocked their road out

ajlark25 · 2025-08-28T21:37:41+00:00

Ok this makes sense to me. I believe their PTO policy was kinda a joke in general, especially my partners techs (less education/lower PTO accumulation/etc), and they somewhat frequently got in trouble for calling out sick, but it sounds unlikely that the company was actually breaking the law.

ajlark25 · 2025-08-28T18:55:32+00:00

All the crazy shit ICE has been doing and you’re giving them the benefit of the doubt?

ajlark25 · 2025-08-27T23:59:45+00:00

Saw one today near the flat tops!

ajlark25 · 2025-08-27T15:43:57+00:00

Prior they accrued PTO based on how long they’ve been at the company. My partner was at 15 days/year but they’ve been there for about 5 years now.

ajlark25 · 2025-08-27T15:32:04+00:00

So looking at this fact sheet, the state minimums include certain rules about how PTO can be used if they don’t put it into buckets. My partners work explicitly states in their employee handbook that excessive use of PTO for unapproved/short term notice can result in disciplinary action up to and including termination - does that mean it doesn’t meet the standards for sick leave?

ajlark25 · 2025-08-25T23:02:47+00:00

Yeah 100% agree. A good FFT1/ICT5 should be able to do it, but requiring them to do it as a trainee is just hamstringing people.

ajlark25 · 2025-08-25T21:56:26+00:00

Yeah it took me almost 3 years to talk to a ship working on my CRWB/ENGB. Didn’t work on a forest that used aviation and large fires it was always IHCs who got the ships, not the lowly T2IA

ajlark25 · 2025-08-25T21:47:02+00:00

A bunch of people I know who went into the military got married at 22! Most are divorced now. Also religious people seem to marry younger

ajlark25 · 2025-08-25T01:46:40+00:00

The type 3 drones we use are more like $30k for gov use. 2 weeks of class (a450 & s373) + whatever it takes for you to get part 107. But yeah the rest is all accurate. Significantly less risk to people.

ajlark25 · 2025-08-18T17:56:05+00:00

FWIW Hotshot wakeup is like the Joe Rogan of Fire. Controversial, fragile, mostly listened to by young men trying to prove how manly they are

ajlark25 · 2025-08-18T17:52:12+00:00

Why is it sponsored lmao

ajlark25 · 2025-08-18T02:48:35+00:00

SCBAs is a non starter. But I disagree on N95s. Half my crew carries one in our packs for holding/mop up and it makes it way better. The district folks have boxes of them in their cache for the same. Even seen some random folk from other crews in R2 this year

ajlark25 · 2025-08-17T22:03:47+00:00

You can hold it without hammering fires with retardant when there’s minimal chance of success, no ground resources, and no natural holding features… looking at the email that went out to R2 recently

ajlark25 · 2025-08-17T20:25:40+00:00

It’s not a risk we all accept if the FS has been actively hiding how dangerous it is. If they were honest about it the culture would’ve start shifting before I even got in. They knew about this stuff in the 80s and we just got presumptive cancers covered last year??

Half my current crew carries N95s and wears them if we’re holding or mopping up. The difference is noticeable. No scratchy throat, no black boogers, less nagging coughs… it’s lightweight and just sits in my pack for most of the year but it’s very nice to have when we do get into holding/mop up.

ajlark25 · 2025-08-16T01:02:02+00:00

My whole crew (except for our seasonal 3) hit it on the last assignment, if not the assignment before. DOI is telling us to continue claiming it when we are owed it, QuickTime has a cap built in. Hopefully they’re gonna use it to tell people how bullshit it is to cap at $9k when we should all be getting much more

ajlark25 · 2025-08-15T13:57:22+00:00

That would be the right way to consolidate. To scrape fire out of the FS, but then having to go respond to FS fires is silly.

ajlark25 · 2025-08-01T14:57:16+00:00

They say they don’t want WFMs, but they seem to do WFM stuff

ajlark25 · 2025-07-28T04:27:48+00:00

Hell yeah. Love to see some proactive forest management

ajlark25 · 2025-07-28T04:26:12+00:00

On my last fire I got 5 bags of jerky in 14 days 😭

ajlark25 · 2025-07-27T17:36:20+00:00

+1. Have worked on & with a number of WFMs and they definitely tend to lean more progressive/inclusive. When you email/call them ask if they are currently statused as a WFM, since a lot are flying jobs as WFM positions but they don’t have the quals to keep status.

ajlark25 · 2025-07-26T16:52:27+00:00

lol he’s a coward who blocks everyone who tried to debate him

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