You're What Now?

Howdy Strangers!

So, if you've been keeping up with the author page on facebook, or even my character spine here on Backstory Blurbs, or are somehow tangentially involved with me in real life, you have come to know that I am a wildland firefighter. "But Anna," you may say, "I am from the East Coast, and I have no idea what a wildland firefighter is!" Well my friend, as I put it so eloquently on the Facebook page, I hike to the tops of mountains to beat wildfires into submission with a chainsaw and a shovel, and in the off-seasons, I am a government liscensed arsonist.

Lolo Peak Fire, MT 2017

"But Anna," you cry, "what is your actual job beneath that thick layer of sarcasm you have spackled over your words?"

Fall Creek Fire, OR 2018

Well, in plain words, I work long, grueling hours doing dangerous, incredibly demanding work no one else wants to do. It's either 110 or 20 degrees Fahrenheit out, everything is on fire, you very often eat mres for three meals a day, sleep on the ground, don't see a shower for two weeks, and, should the living wage law pass, would make less than a McDonalds employee. It's hard, dirty, and very capable of killing you at any moment in a thousand different ways -- and incredibly satisfying. I like my job. I get to be outside, learn lots of new skills, see cool places, and, best of all, I feel proud to tell people, "Yeah. I'm a wildland firefighter," when they ask me what I do for a living. It is a good feeling to be proud of something I do, to be part of something great.

Anna, on Lolo Peak Fire, MT 2018

The fire community is small, and our organizations still have room to improve, but, at the end of the day, we are a giant extended family of people that give a shit and are willing to work ourselves to death to help protect you and your homes -- sometimes, too often, literally. But we could never do anything less.

Until Next Time,
Anna