Executive Order Reportedly Freezing Seasonal Firefighter Jobs

Following the worst fire season in California history, and with wildfire season basically year-round now, an executive order by President Donald Trump is rescinding many seasonal wildfire job offers.

Jenn McCarthy, who has worked as a seasonal firefighter for the last five years for the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management, told ABC 7 News that she was in the middle of the onboarding process when she found out the job she had been offered was rescinded.

"It's not really fathomable to me that you can get rid of your wildland firefighting workforce, especially given the fire season that we had this last year and certainly this winter," McCarthy said.

Last month, a federal hiring freeze ordered no vacant federal civilian positions be filled or created.

While the order supposedly does not apply to positions related to public safety, thousands of seasonal firefighter positions like McCarthy's are on hold.

ABC 7 reports that in December, a U.S. Forest Service spokesperson confirmed retention issues, especially in middle management positions because of pay.

California Sen. Adam Schiff sent a letter to the Office of Management and Budget and Department of Agriculture stating, "In the face of increasingly destructive wildfires, we cannot afford to diminish the tools at our disposal to fight these fires."

According to the ABC 7 report, the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE,) the union that represents federal wildland firefighters, believes money and the hiring freeze may fuel possible firefighters to look for jobs elsewhere.

"We expect wildfires to get bigger. We expect communities to burn and people to lose their lives if wildland firefighters aren't able to do their jobs," Steven Gutierrez with the NFFE said.