“I’m trapped in a corner.”

Those were the last words of Wildland Firefighter Charlie Morton as he and his colleagues fought a blaze started by pyrotechnics at a gender reveal party in Southern California in Sept. 2020.

Morton, the crew boss, left the group to inspect nearby spot fires that had started after fiery embers floated across the bulldozer line – a line in the ground where all vegetation is stripped back to prevent the fire from advancing.

He radioed to his colleagues to help put out the spot fires. Moments later, 60 mph gusts of wind rapidly spread the ferocious blaze to nearby fresh vegetation, encircling Morton, 39.

That was the last time he was heard from or seen alive.

His body was found hours later beside his fire shelter, which was still folded up. His clothes had been completely burned off his body.

Morton was one of the 27 wildland firefighters killed that year from incidents related to fighting fires.

But those wildland firefighters are not the only ones to lose their lives.

Overworked and understaffed

As climate change relentlessly fuels drought and extreme temperatures across the western United States, stagnated wages have created problems for overworked and understaffed wildland firefighters, such as homelessness, suicide, and cancer, according to a May 2021 study presented at the International Association of Wildland Fire 6th Annual Human Dimensions Conference.

A temporary two-year pay raise helped the service retain many of its firefighters, but that expires in September and will reduce wildland firefighters’ salaries by about $1,500 a month. Without it, most earn under $40,000 a year, which is below the living wage in every state in the country, according to an analysis using the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s living wage calculator.

Those low wages have historically led to an exodus of experienced personnel, while those who have stayed struggle to find affordable housing and suffer from financial stress and PTSD, according to various reports and studies.

“These issues are all related,” said Mark Munoz, a Suppression Battalion Chief in the federal government’s wildland firefighting service. “We have long hours, kinda bad food, tough living conditions, and you can die. And most do it for not a lot of money.”

Even the United States Department of Agriculture has featured the struggles of wildland firefighters on its website, pointing out how some are on food stamps. It’s expected that 50% of wildland firefighters will quit once the temporary pay raise expires on Sept. 30, noted Munoz, who said that in addition to the death of Morton, he’d lost firefighting friends to cancer and suicide over the last three years.

The shortfall of wildland firefighters has historically been filled by inmates, who are paid between $2 and $5 a day. The practice started just after World War Two to help prisoners transition back into society and in 2015 approximately 30% of the wildland firefighting force was made up of prisoners.

While many see significant reductions in their sentence, some have called the practice abusive and exploitative. In 2021, a federal judge in California ruled that the inmates could not become career firefighters.

High rates of cancer and underpaid

Wildland firefighters are generally exposed to far more significant risks than those in towns and cities. They work and live in camps, sleeping in already blackened and dusty parts of burned-out forests for weeks.

The fires they deal with are far more extensive and can spread faster. Because of the need to move quickly in remote areas, many wildland firefighters use only bandanas and N95 masks instead of conventional respirators. The air cylinders last 30-60 minutes, with replacements weighing 30 lbs. It’s completely impractical to move them through rugged forests with that kind of weight. That means the average wildland firefighter is exposed to smoke inhalation for between 8 and 16 hours throughout the wildfire season.

Although research is ongoing, there is some evidence that these conditions have contributed to severe respiratory problems and cancer. A 2023 study by the Lancet medical journal confirmed the occupational link between smoke inhaled as part of the wildland firefighters’ job and cancer.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer also recently categorized wildfire smoke as a group 1 carcinogen.

Despite understanding the inherent risks of the job, the federal government has been accused of providing inadequate resources, resulting in insufficient training, safety measures, and healthcare access.

Entry-level federal wildland firefighters used to earn below $14 an hour before the temporary pay raise, while the California Department of Forestry and fire protection pays around $26 per hour. Municipal and state firefighting agencies generally offer better pay and behavioral health services.

Many wildland firefighters work seasonally for about eight months, with long shifts of up to 16 hours a day and 14 consecutive days. They are often called away at a moment’s notice, and due to high housing costs, some resort to sleeping in their cars and camping during the season.

What does all this mean for increased wildfires due to climate change?

Fire seasons have significantly lengthened over the years, now averaging 78 days longer than in 1970, according to a recent Environmental Protection Agency report. This prolonged duration has exposed thousands of wildland firefighters nationwide to increased stress and trauma.

The western regions face escalating challenges due to rising temperatures, severe droughts, historical fire suppression practices, inadequate forest management, and a growing population residing in areas where towns and cities meet the forests.

Earlier this month, smoke from Canadian wildfires caused chaos on the east coast, shrouding major cities like New York in a haze of orange smoke. The city’s air quality was, for a brief time, the worst in the world. More smoke is expected to arrive on the east coast later this week.

The crisis has created complex personal and domestic lives for the firefighters, with many opting to work as much as 1000 hours overtime in any given season, according to Munoz. They also top up their pay by taking on more dangerous assignments that qualify them for hazard pay.

“Life isn’t good when they go home,” said Munoz. “Because if they feel like they’re not providing for their families, or if they are managing to provide, they’re probably never home anyway because they want that overtime and hazard pay, which only adds to the danger and the mental health burden. So these people feel like a failure on both ends of the spectrum, and that’s part of why many of them are committing suicide and have other problems.”

Between 2015 and 2016, for example, 52 wildland firefighters took their own lives, according to a Bureau of Land Management report. According to U.S Fire Administration stats, fewer died while on the job over the same period.

But generally, only a few studies link the occupation to poor mental health and suicide. A British Medical Journal study published in 2021 found that 78% of wildland firefighters in British Columbia, Canada, suffered from poor mental health.

”It’s true, there aren’t a lot of studies about suicide in our line of work,” said Max Alonzo, a former wildland firefighter and current organizer for the National Federation of Federal Employees. “But I can promise you that the lifestyle, low pay, homelessness, and health problems are not good for your mind, and we’ve seen a spike in suicides.”

A survey of 2600 current, former, and retired wildland firefighters found that they reported symptoms consistent with mental health disorders at a rate of 2.5 to 4 times higher than the general population, including depression, generalized anxiety disorders, and post-traumatic stress.

What can be done?

On Monday, Munoz, Alonzo, and 17 other wildland firefighters arrived in the Capitol to talk to members of Congress, Department of Labor officials, and the undersecretary of the United States Department of Agriculture, Homer Wilkes.

“It was more of an educational trip,” said Alonzo. “Some of them had no idea and were shocked at what was going on. Some were very supportive, and some just didn’t seem to get it.”

It comes months after Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) stood in front of the Capitol building and called on the government to act, saying that it shouldn’t be a surprise that they can make more as “new employees at Costco than they can parachuting into forest fires.”

The President’s budget contains millions supporting the firefighters, but Alonzo said that Republicans are unlikely to accept his budget in full. The budget pumps hundreds of millions into the various agencies that would see wildland firefighter’s salaries increase, and it would completely reform the pay structure.

The firefighters want a permanent pay increase as part of pay reform, additional mental health support, and affordable housing in areas where they live and fight fires. They are also hopeful of getting standby pay of 50% of the firefighters’ hourly rate for those who are on standby but may not be used.

“It’s not perfect, but it’s one of the best proposals we’ve ever seen in our history,” added Munoz. “If they don’t act, we’re facing a national disaster of a scale not seen in a long time.”