ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Three major wildfires are burning in Southern California, and one thing that sets them apart is their exponential growth. For example, the Bridge Fire in Los Angeles County started Sunday. Yesterday morning, it was 4,000 acres. And by the end of the day yesterday, it had exploded to cover 46,000 acres. And a heat wave has kept temperatures in Southern California triple digits for days. Ben Elkind is a wildland firefighter based in Washington state, and he's traveled the country fighting fires for 17 years now. Welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
BEN ELKIND: Yeah, thanks for having me.
SHAPIRO: What goes through your mind when you hear about these three wildfires burning simultaneously in Southern California?
ELKIND: Gosh, you know, fires that big, there's not much you can do. I think about the people working on the fires, you know, mostly. And I think about my experiences on fires that are similar to that. It's just extreme conditions to be in. And this time of year, everybody's tired. They're probably coming up on 1,000 hours of overtime since early June. Yeah, I just really feel for the people out there doing the work.
SHAPIRO: You say 1,000 hours of overtime. Is that typical? Is that what you would be doing for, like, the last 17 years?
ELKIND: Yeah, it's pretty typical these days. You know, when I first started 17 years ago, you know, I started on a Type 2 crew, which is kind of a local fire crew. You know, a big year would be 450 hours of overtime.
SHAPIRO: Oh.
ELKIND: And then, when I was a hot shot, you know, we'd travel all over - Southern California, New Mexico, Alaska, all the way out to South Dakota. You know, even then, a big year would be 900 hours of overtime. And now what I see is hot shot crews getting up to the 1,500 hours of overtime in just six or seven months. So...
SHAPIRO: What does that do to a firefighter when they are overextended by that dramatic - I mean, like, I don't know how you do 40 hours a week in triple digit temperatures fighting fires. To do twice that or even more sounds unsustainable.
ELKIND: Yeah, it was for me. You know, I was a hot shot for a few years, and then, you know, I decided I needed to get out because, you know, you basically just removed yourself from life for six months a year. It felt like I wasn't a person at times. People were stressed out. I mean, you would have people going through divorces in the middle of fire season. People would be injured, and they'd have to work through it because, you know, they couldn't afford to not work. So they'd be out working injured. And then also just the hours, the lack of sleep, the fatigue, the extreme temperatures. You know, all the stuff that goes into being a firefighter for a summer, it accumulates.
SHAPIRO: I've heard others say that there used to be a fire season, and now it's 12 months a year. Is that your experience?
ELKIND: You know, it's different for everybody. But, yeah, it used to be I would get to October, and I would be just dying to get laid off for the year. You know, the rain was coming, fires were dying down. But now I talk to my friends, and they're in Tennessee on burns, you know, over Thanksgiving. For some people, there's no end in sight anymore. And, you know, but the job is really valuable, you know, and people's communities, their homes, you know, they're affected by these fires. And you feel this real sense of urgency to help and be a public servant. So you're kind of - you know, it's like this loop where you're kind of - you're trying to help other people's emergency. But you're kind of - internally, a lot of people are having their own emergencies.
SHAPIRO: Has the job become more dangerous in the years that you've been doing it?
ELKIND: Where I see the job getting more dangerous is, you used to have these qualified people out there on the fire line. All the positions were fully staffed. And now what you have is trainees who are out there working, and potentially, a lot of times there's no trainer with them. So there's just less experience out there on the fire line.
SHAPIRO: Is there something that you think would make this more sustainable as a long-term career?
ELKIND: You know, when you start out in this job, you know, for me, I was in my early 20s. And I was single, no kids, and I just loved being on fires, you know, even as a hot shot. The thing I see now is people that are my age with kids, you know, the skilled people that have a lot of fire line qualifications, experience, you know, you're in your late 30s with a couple of kids now. And, yeah, people are leaving quickly. And, of course, it's pay, but it's also just the work-life balance. You know, we go out for 14 days at a time, you're home for three and then you're back out for another 14. And it feels like this hamster wheel you can't get off of. So I think, you know, for me, I think there really needs to be a focus on, how do we retain experienced firefighters with families? And how do we support their families when they're gone on fires? And I think that's something we really need to be talking about.
SHAPIRO: That's wildland firefighter Ben Elkind. Thank you so much.
ELKIND: Thanks, Ari.
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