Heading West

[Phaedrus]

Hello all,
I am Jeremiah Hatcher, a student of Forestry, an avid outdoorsman, and very very interested in leaving my home here in Florida, and heading out west to fight wildfire. It began with a class in fire management, where I got my S130-S190 courses done, the teacher was a long time firefighter with the Jackson Guard and he really convinced me that this was the line of work meant for me.

I have since completed my Forest Tech degree, and am beginning Fire Academy in February, if all goes according to plan, I will be done with that in July, just in time to help volunteer at Jackson Guard for my first season, then after that, I will be ready to load up and head west.

The biggest reason I want to head west is when I was in Scouts we spent a couple weeks hiking in the Rockies and I had the time of my life - 115 degrees and I wasnt even sweating! Here it can be 85 and you can walk around the block and be soaked with sweat! That and the fact that out west has a helluva lot of places to ride dirtbikes, which is my favorite thing to do, and out west is where it all happens. Ive already figured out my living situation - I have a 26' travel trailer and a truck to haul my dirtbike, and I can be 100% mobile without paying rent, loans, mortgage, utilities, just a campsite fee. Plus I'll get to explore all over the US, doing things that most folks tell me they wish they had done before they had the responsibilities of a family and such.

Then, once Im out of firefighting, cant dig handline no more way down the road, Ill be able to get a job with the NPS, BLM, USFS, or other sort of agency.

Glad theres a forum here of likeminded individuals, rock on and "have a fire-safe day!"

[Crwb4104]

I would begin searching the Forest Service and BLM for vacancies in the area's that your interested in. They may have barracks/ campsites available. If there is a particular state that your interested in, check their Department of Conservation/ Natural resources, State Parks' service , etc.
Most importantly, start looking, and apply EARLY. January to April seems to be the best time to get everything in, I know that my agency has a opening date in January and a deadline of April 1st, for all of its seasonal positions and that seems to be the norm out here.

[Gnufsh]

My USFS ranger district often has perm (and always has temp) openings in fire, we also have trailer pads and housing.

[Breech31]

Definitely check out the USFWS site. Some applications processes have already closed, but there are some still available, with the actual start dates being in april. Not sure how that jives with your schooling, but apply early and often.

I would also check state agency websites (Dept. of Natural Resources, Conservation, etc.) as they hire temp, full, and part time jobs. I got my first temp gig during last spring. We didn't have alot of hours, as our spring was pretty wet, but it was a great experience, I got in on some burns, and created more interest in a job in the 'fire business.' Best of luck

[MTWILDMAN]

You may also check with some Contractors who are under a national contract. Where you have your own living quarters they would most likely have hook ups available. Our company normally provides room & board for our hires. We are building a new Type 6 for the 2010 season if interested I will be looking for additional crew. Let me know, we operate all over the US on both suppression and prescribe burn operations (USFWS, BLM, and state agencies).

[Phaedrus]

First off, thank all of you for your helpful responses, I kinda forgot I posted this!

I have since gone to Orientation for Fire Academy, Where I discovered I still need to find some gloves and boots for Academy. I luckily scored a set of turnouts from a longtime family friend who is Chief at the local fire station, all but the boots and gloves.
Any direction where I could find some affordable ones would be great, I cant afford to spend 100 bucks on gloves that I wont be able to use outside of Academy, and it seems like Structure gloves are different from Extrication gloves, which are different from Wildland gloves..
Same goes for boots.

You may also check with some Contractors who are under a national contract. Where you have your own living quarters they would most likely have hook ups available. Our company normally provides room & board for our hires. We are building a new Type 6 for the 2010 season if interested I will be looking for additional crew. Let me know, we operate all over the US on both suppression and prescribe burn operations (USFWS, BLM, and state agencies).

I will definetly be interested, once I get done with Academy at the end of July I will be available anywhere in North America for hire, if I can't find anything due to that being such a late start, then Ill just volunteer at Jackson Guard as planned, even though their season will be pretty much over by then.