Watching the California wildfires, we hear all the stories about the families who've lost homes and belongings. But there's another story of hardship on the fire lines that nobody in the media seems to be telling.
My brother's a HotShot for the Forest Service, based in northern California. Every year these guys work 6-7 months on fires all over the US. They operate on little sleep, without showers, hot food, or a roof over their heads. The work is physically exhausting, and performed under hellish conditions. Sadly, sometimes they meet a tragic fate.
And because these guys are classified as "temporary," they have no benefits, no pension, no health care. Once the season ends, many of them take jobs in bars or construction, again without benefits. Others go on unemployment and some get food stamps. Many have active hobbies like snowboarding and rock-climbing, where an injury would put them out of business and into debt paying their medical bills. I have no clue what they do when they get too old to work the fires, they sure don't have pensions or 401(k) plans.
So while the politicians fall all over themselves trying to obtain federal funds to help rebuild McMansions in the hills, and let timber companies harvest the trees, I just wish one of them (hello, Democrats? you busy?) would bother to meet the fire crews, learn how precarious their futures are, and offer to do something about that too.