Workforce

Smiling recruits at a basic wildland fire training course in Idaho: the Department of the Interior employs thousands of people to manage wildland fire across the country. (Photo by BLM Idaho.)

Quick Facts

5,780: Total number of federal wildland fire personnel employed by the Interior Department in 2024.
900: Total number of Tribal wildland fire personnel employed through Interior in 2024.
126: Types of positions involved in wildland fire incidents.

Workforce Reforms

The Interior Department is continuing its efforts to improve and strengthen our wildland fire workforce.

Permanent Pay Reform

Permanent pay increases for federal and Tribal wildland firefighters were enacted with the passage of Public Law 119-4 in March 2025.

As wildfires grow larger and more destructive — threatening communities, livelihoods, and vital infrastructure — wildland fire personnel face growing demands. Improving firefighter pay to better reflect the arduous, challenging nature of this work is helping the Interior Department and Tribes to hire and retain the talented professionals needed in this critical field. 

The legislation establishes new pay rates for all federal wildland firefighters, including temporary and seasonal employees. The new General Wildland Firefighter salary tables apply to the majority of the workforce. The salary tables for employees in the Federal Wage System (FWS) are available on Interior's employee benefits webpage. The pay increases will be used for retirement savings plan and pension calculations, resulting in an even larger net benefit over a career in wildland fire.

In addition, the law creates wildland fire Incident Response Premium (IRP) pay, allowing all federal employees to earn extra pay for extended deployments to qualifying wildfire incidents. 

The law also makes permanent Bureau of Indian Affairs funding for similar pay increases for Tribal wildland firefighters who protect Indian Country and contribute to interagency wildland firefighting efforts across the United States.

These permanent increases replace the temporary pay supplements that federal wildland firefighter received over the past four years.

The enactment of permanent pay reform is a significant step forward in better supporting the Department’s critical wildland fire personnel. These improvements will enable the Interior Department to continue hiring and retaining the talented professionals who protect our nation’s homes, businesses, communities, essential infrastructure, and landscapes from wildfires.

Wildland Firefighter Occupational Series

The Interior Department continues to implement the new occupational series for federal wildland firefighters by developing standardized position descriptions for additional position types. For the first time in 50 years, this series clearly defines the unique duties of wildland firefighters and provides clear details on career advancement.

Permanent Positions

The Interior Department is continuing to transition to a more permanent workforce capable of wildfire response and mitigation work on a year-round basis.

As of 2024, 75 percent of the Department's wildland fire personnel are in permanent positions, a 22% increase from five years ago.

Health and Wellbeing

The Interior Department and USDA Forest Service are developing the Federal Wildland Firefighter Health and Wellbeing Program to support the unique experiences and needs of our dedicated wildland fire personnel.  

Training

Along with our partners at the USDA Forest Service, we are developing a strategy to provide expanded training, education, and experiential learning opportunities to improve emergency response skillsets, business acumen, and land management competencies.

Hiring

The Department of the Interior is prepared to address wildfire activity this summer. As of May 3, the Interior Department had 4,295 wildland fire personnel in place, which is slightly above the Department’s hiring levels at this same time last year.

By the end of 2025, the Department plans to have employed a total of 5,700 federal and more than 900 Tribal wildland firefighters and support personnel during the year. Those employees will not all work at one time due to the seasonal nature of fire activity across different regions of the country.

The Interior Department is continuing to fill additional positions each week. For a listing of fire positions that are currently open, visit the National Interagency Fire Center website for a listing of fire positions that are currently open.

Hiring Practices

The lengthening of fire seasons into fire years creates significant challenges for sustaining adequate wildland fire staffing. Seasonal firefighters have long been the backbone of wildland fire management, and the Interior Department is committed to transitioning to a more permanent workforce capable of wildfire response and mitigation work on a year-round basis.

The Interior Department has also been exploring ways to streamline hiring with the Department of Agriculture to enable more efficient hiring of qualified wildland fire personnel.

Controlling Risk

Human safety is always our highest priority. No structure or resource is worth a life. We emphasize the importance of safety in all our required training programs and in daily briefings that take place during incidents. 

Our wildland fire personnel are rigorously trained and maintain specialized qualifications. Those in physically demanding jobs are required to meet medical standards to ensure their safety and that of their colleagues. 

We adjust our tactics to make sure firefighters do not directly engage a wildfire when the risks can’t be mitigated to an acceptable level. We study and learn from past fires and share those lessons widely. 

The wildland fire community offers a number of online resources where people can pursue additional training and learn through the experiences of others:

• Joint Fire Science Program
• National Advanced Fire & Resource Institute
• National Wildfire Coordinating Group
• Wildfire Lessons Learned Center

Harassment-free Workplace

Ensuring that our employees have a safe and professional environment in which to work is not only the right thing to do, it’s the law. The Department of the Interior prohibits offensive sexual or non-sexual harassing behavior against any employee, intern, volunteer, contractor, or other non-federal employee, visitor, or member of the public. The Department also prohibits adverse treatment of employees because they report harassing conduct or provide information related to such complaints. Read the full anti-harassment policy and explore other employee resources at doi.gov/employees.

Join Us!

Are you interested in working in wildland fire? Learn more about how to begin a career in wildland fire or explore the many careers available in the Department of the Interior. Additional information about careers in fire, including a list of open positions on USAJOBS, is also available from the National Interagency Fire Center.