Argumentative Essay On Firefighting

There is a shortage of people wanting to be firefighters while people are quitting firefighting, some ways to fix this is incorporating ways to deal with mental health, increase the wages, and going out and teaching the public about firefighting.

Background

Right now in the US there is a shortage of firefighters. Many firefighters are leaving for many reasons like retirement, stress, low pay, and many other reasons. At the same time, many fire departments are struggling to recruit firefighters. This is bad because fires are getting worse. This is because houses have more flammable materials in them and climate change. Steve Kerber, the Vice President and Executive Director of the Fire Safety Research Institute said “The number of fires being

He also said “Over the last decade fire deaths have increased by 30%, he said.”(“America is still burning’: Fire departments are struggling to recruit as climate change and modern materials make the job deadlier than ever”). Wildfires have also been increasing in size, intensity, and duration due to climate change. “The standard line from the US Forest Service about the number of wildland firefighters in the agency has been 10,000 wildland firefighters nationwide, but in recent years they have been unable to fill all of their positions due to difficulties in recruitment and

This is especially big with wildland firefighters. This is because wildland firefighters leave to go to a fire for 2 weeks on the fire not including travel time there and back. Then when they get back, they get 2 days off, then possibly have to leave again to another fire for another 2 weeks and this cycle lasts for the entire fire season which can be as long as 7 months. Also structured firefighters have to work 24 or 48 hour shifts. The biggest thing that affects mental health is the fact that firefighters go into an IDLH (Immediately dangerous to life and health) environment with no clue what is happening and how it's changing. For example, structure firefighters go into buildings while they can’t see, don’t know where the fire is, and don’t know how big it is. Wildland firefighters do know where and how big it is, how fast it's moving, but the weather can change and completely change everything or even make the fire head towards them. The effects of all the stress and workload makes a lot of firefighters quit after a while, or even develop mental health issues like PTSD or depression. About 30% of first responders in total develop mental health issues which is higher than the general public which is about 20%. Some ways that will help this issue are incorporating more intensive outpatient programs and peer to peer programs in the departments. In places where these are incorporated are helping the responders way