Federal Firefighters to Get Hazard Pay for Prescribed Burns and Smokejumping Under New Bill

This new bill aims to fix a gap in federal pay rules by making sure that federal firefighters get hazard pay for two specific, risky jobs: working on prescribed burns and smokejumping. Essentially, the legislation officially recognizes that intentionally setting and controlling fires for land management—a prescribed burn—is just as hazardous as fighting an active, uncontrolled wildfire. It mandates that employees performing these duties receive the same pay differential given to those on the fireline. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is tasked with writing the necessary regulations within 90 days of the bill becoming law, ensuring this pay change kicks in quickly.

The Real Risk of Controlled Burns

If you’ve ever seen the news coverage of wildland firefighting, you know the dangers are obvious: intense heat, unpredictable flames, and long hours. But this bill zeroes in on the less-publicized risk of prescribed burns. These are planned fires used to clear underbrush and reduce fuel loads, which is crucial for preventing mega-wildfires later. However, working these burns means prolonged exposure to smoke, intense heat, and the constant danger of the fire escaping control. Under this bill, the duties of setting up, managing, or extinguishing a prescribed burn are officially classified as involving “unusual physical hardship or hazard.” This means a federal firefighter working a prescribed burn in, say, California, will finally get the same hazard pay rate as a colleague fighting a lightning-strike fire in Montana.

Parity for the Parachute Crew

The bill also specifically addresses smokejumpers—the elite crews who parachute into remote areas to contain fires while they are still small. The legislation makes it clear that their duties, including the parachute jumps themselves (whether for training or active deployment), also qualify for this hazard pay. This is a common-sense move that ensures the most specialized and high-risk federal firefighters are compensated fairly for their unique dangers. For these crews, who are literally jumping out of planes to do their jobs, the hazard pay acknowledges the extreme nature of their work.

What This Means for the Paycheck

For the federal employees involved, this means a needed bump in compensation for work they were already doing. The bill doesn't create a new hazard pay rate; it simply adds these specific duties to the list of activities that qualify for the existing extra pay differential under section 5545(d) of title 5, U.S. Code. While this will increase payroll costs for the federal government (and thus, taxpayers), it’s essentially an investment in retaining skilled personnel and recognizing the true cost of managing public lands safely. OPM has a 90-day deadline to implement the rules, meaning the new pay structure should be in place shortly after the regulations are finalized, offering a swift financial recognition of the risk involved.