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One of the unique things about this program is that we're looking for those of you who
have no fire experience, and a potentially interested in giving the career a shot.
What that involves is in the beginning of the season when you show up for work, we'll
do a lot of classroom training combined with field exercises.
You'll get all the basic courses needed to start a career in wildland fire, plus some
extras.
We'll go over pump operations in S-211, we'll do chainsaw operations via S-212 and then
combine that with a lot of field training and exercises.
Once we're completed with all the training, we'll go out on fires for the remainder of
the summer.
Assignments included fire assignments to Alaska, which is a really big deal.
There are people that spend their entire careers and never go to Alaska.
People were able to go out to the desert atmosphere and do a little bit of fire fighting out in
Nevada, as well as Idaho.
Those are primarily the three states that we visited within this last year.
But within the experience of a lot of us, we've been to a lot of different places.
Whether it be wildland fire relief with Tennessee, or Kentucky, or Georgia; the options are endless
within this program.
We are an academy that have dedicated overhead that have plenty of experience themselves
in training, and a genuine interest in helping people launch a career.
The academy's format and program is a perfect way to do that.
We have a hand crew and an engine as part of the program, and so there's some flexibility
and opportunity to work on multiple modules here within the program.
Recruits can experience local resources: other crews, other engines, but also beyond.
They can work with folks like the BLM, there's a myriad of opportunity.
We value diversity, it's not just a box we're checking, but we actually believe truly within
our hearts that when we bring people together from different areas and different backgrounds
and different environmental conditions that we make ourselves stronger.
At the academy while we're out on assignments, you're going to be given quite a variety of
tasks and fire duties.
Our fire assignments can last anywhere from one to fourteen days, sometimes even longer
on an extension.
It gives a special opportunity to get to know each other and to come together as a crew.
And that's something that you don't find in other careers.
Some of you may have applied to jobs through traditional methods like USA Jobs, and it's
a difficult process to navigate.
In this program, we'll provide you some assistance in navigating that system.
We'll help you work on your resume, it's quite a bit different than what you would expect
from the private sector.
Another unique feature about the program is we're able to hire you directly.
So if you call us up, you can talk to us on the phone, come in for an interview; we can
offer you a job and completely skip the USA Jobs process until we can help you through
that system later in the summer.
This year, the rate for the AD's was ADC, which they made $18.96 per hour, which from
2018 was a thirty-two cent pay increase.
So on average the recruits made anywhere from $18,000 to $19,000 which was a substantial
amount, given that this year was very slow.
We saw less than half of what we normally see.
The AD pay rate will go up incrementally every year.
The timeline for the Boise Wildland Fire Academy starts in January when the outreach and application
process opens and then closes mid-March.
We begin the interview and the selection process and hopefully will be done with that in mid
April.
Mid May will be the recruits anticipated start time.
After 80 hours of required training, when fire season starts; we'll be spending the
rest of our summer on fires.
That can last anywhere from three to five months; with the fire season ending roughly
at the end of September or middle of October.