Trump’s federal hiring freeze halts onboarding of federal firefighting crews ahead of wildfire season
CNN
The federal hiring freeze implemented by President Donald Trump has affected the hiring of a crucial group of federal workers: firefighters.
The federal hiring freeze implemented by President Donald Trump has affected the hiring of a crucial group of federal workers: firefighters. The freeze comes at a critical time, when fire departments across the country would typically onboard thousands of seasonal federal firefighters in preparation for wildfires in the spring and summer. “It’s going to be really bad, really quick,” said Ben McLane, a federal hand crew captain and board member with Grassroots Wildland Firefighters. “We’re going to have a lack of personnel when fire season gets going,” McLane told CNN on Friday. “The precedent that we’ve seen over the last few decades at this point is making us pretty certain that it’s going to be a big fire season again.” The federal hiring freeze, initiated through one of the executive orders the president signed on his first day in office, dictates that no new federal civilian positions can be created and no vacant positions can be filled. Federal firefighters are an essential part of the nation’s firefighting capability. The Department of the Interior employed 5,780 federal wildland fire personnel in 2024, while the US Forest Service employed over 11,300.
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