Shutdown impact: Preparation for fighting wildfires - PBS NewsHour

Jim Whittington:

Training for wildland firefighters is greatly affected by the shutdown. There's already a compressed time frame because of climate change.

You have fires starting earlier, fires going later. When you take three or four or more weeks out of the time frame that is there for the training and the learning for our firefighters, that creates a tremendous burden on everybody within the wildland fire community, federal, state and local.

And it also makes it more difficult to plan for the early — at least the early stages of the 2019 fire year. And it may be difficult to fill some of the positions early on, as folks scramble to meet the qualifications and take the courses that are needed so they can fill the positions.

I think morale is definitely suffering within the wildland fire community, because there is this sense of inevitability of the 2019 fire year coming down the tracks and bearing down on people, and a frustration that they are prevented right now from doing the work necessary to prepare, not only themselves, but their communities, partners, and everyone else who might be affected by a fire in 2019.

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