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California Lacks Federal Firefighters as Dangerous Season Looms
Firefighters watch as smoke rises from a brush fire scorching at least 100 acres in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles this week. The Forest Service is struggling to recruit and retain wildland firefighters in California.
Ringo H.W. Chiu
The Associated Press
Federal wildland firefighter jobs in California are sitting open even as the West heads into what’s likely to be a brutal fire season.
That’s not just a problem for California—where wildfires have in recent years been among the largest and most dangerous in the country—but for the whole region, because federal crews travel to other states to beat back major fires.