Common Questions: What Are Wildland Fire Assignments Like Logistically?
How many consecutive rolls could you receive in one season? Is it possible to be away for months in a row? Who pays for food and lodging?
The details are simpler than you think. You travel together in government rigs and you can pay for what you want or have the government give you a travel card. However, get ready to be gone a lot.
The best riverside fire camping spot I’ve ever had. Amazing to swim in the river and share a meal together before falling asleep under the stars and listening to the water rush by. Fire in Idaho 2021.
The most consecutive rolls I've ever had in a season was 6. We would travel to the fire, work 14 days straight, travel home (which could be two or three days depending on distance) and have two days off (in 2021 we started getting three days off in between rolls) and then do the cycle all over again. I wasn't necessarily gone for months in a row, but it felt like it. Sometimes I’ve done 21 day assignments, which are more common if you travel a very far distance or are in an aviation setting. This is the reality with hotshot/handcrews and helicopter crews. Engines generally don't have seasons like this as often.
When you are deployed on a fire assignment you are already working and you leave with your crew from your duty station in a government vehicle to the assignment. Generally you stay in hotels or camp outside and the assignment will provide meals.
Sometimes the assignment is unable to provide meals and you will go on what's called Per Diem, which is a set meal rate depending on what county you are in (Vegas is more than a tiny town, etc). Basically you get a standard rate of $55 (or whatever the per diem rate is) to spend on your meals, but you won't get reimbursed for any more than the per diem rate.
Depending on your financial situation, if you can’t front the money for food and possibly hotel rooms with your own credit card and hold the balance until you get reimbursed you can apply for a government travel credit card at the beginning of the season to take care of expenses.
When you get back to your duty station you or your boss fills out a travel “voucher” online that includes your receipts that starts the reimbursement process in motion and then you get a lump sum by direct deposit if you paid for things yourself and the government will pay the government credit card bill if you used a travel card.