MSNBC / Seasonal firefighters had been laid off

[shance]

Seasonal firefighters had been laid off

By Bill Dedman
Investigative reporter

Every fall, the state of California declares the official end of the fire season. Sometimes the fires don't get the message.

Joe Mackey, a seasonal firefighter for CalFire, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, got a call Oct. 12 telling him he wouldn't be needed any more this year.

"They told me I'm getting laid off. Turn my gear in the next day," Mackey said. "They didn't really give me any notice."

On Tuesday, with fires threatening thousands of homes, the state backtracked, declaring the obvious: The fire season is back on.

"They have rescinded the fire season throughout California, and they are able to hire back all fire personnel," Patti Roberts, spokeswoman for the Governor's Office of Emergency Services, told msnbc.com Tuesday afternoon. "I can't say that they have all been rehired, but they can be rehired."

CalFire has about 1,400 seasonal employees in addition to 3,800 permanent staff, according to its Web site. It was not immediately clear whether all of the seasonal firefighters had been terminated before the Southern California fires broke out, or how many would actually be brought back. An official at one fire station said callbacks were happening unit by unit.

Mackey, 31, has been with the department since 1998, moving from station to station as needed. He was most recently stationed in the Chico area of Northern California, north of Sacramento, but said he would be fighting the fires in Southern California if he hadn't been laid off.

‘People don't understand’
"People don't understand that some fire departments are just summertime fire departments," he said. "We work from May to October or November. People ask, 'Why aren't you down there?' They hear on the news that they're shorthanded. I tell them I got laid off."

It's not the first time that a huge fire has happened after the firefighters are sent home. The Paradise Fire, which killed two people and destroyed 221 homes, was in October 2003. The Cedar Fire, which killed 14 people and destroyed more than 250 houses and commercial buildings, started the same month and burned into November.

"Every year, there's a possibility with the Santa Ana winds," Mackey said. "Some years they get lucky and there's only a few fires. The summer has preheated all this vegetation and there's drought, and then you get this spark and it's out of control."

Wife writes of frustration

Mackey’s wife, Laine, who sent an e-mail to msnbc.com on the layoffs, is beside herself over the situation.

"This happens every year," she said. "The Santa Ana winds help fuel huge fires that cause evacuations and millions in damage, all at the same time that the state cuts the budget and lays off thousands of firefighters, while Southern California is burning.

"We are struggling to find work and struggling to find a medical insurance company who will cover a recovering cancer patient like myself before our last 30 days is up. Yet now the state of California is in emergency and it's their own damn fault, as it is every year.

Firefighters who could be helping fight the fires and providing for their own families at the same time."
© 2007 MSNBC Interactive

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21443093/

[SoCalDem]

1. How stupid.. October is Santana wind month

and many significant fires have happened in late fall..


"Fire season" is ..until it starts raining in the winter..and some winters it barely rains at all..

The part that creeps me out about this story too, is the fact that a 31 yr old man ..a firefighter has to be part-time, and then spend most of what he makes for insurance for a young wife with cancer..

Talk about a grim future.. a 31 yr old couple should be building their future...not spending every penny just to get health care ..:grr:

[sandnsea]

2. It allows the federal to pay

If the state could handle it, then there would be no reason to declare it a disaster area and call in federal funds, national guard, and other federal resources. You bet the state knows it's coming, that's why they end the fire season when they do. They probably got the weather reports and hurried up and laid everybody off so they wouldn't go over budget.

[me b zola]

3. Saw a story last night on one of the network's evening news

They were using a fire fighting crew made up of female inmates from one of the local prisons. They were crowing about how it only cost the state a tenth of the cost that a regular crew would cost. :grr:

[Theres-a]

4. 2,300

That's how many inmates they have working the fires.That's the number I heard on tv yesterday. My jaw dropped.

[kestrel91316]

5. It's beyond me why they would EVER lay these folks off before November.

Anyone in this state with half a brain knows that THIS IS FIRE SEASON.

[Wilber_Stool]

6. I remember reading about three years ago

that the wages of the professional experienced fire fighters was cut so much that many of them quit. I've googled it but can't confirm. Anybody else remember that?