Where Emergency Response Runs Deep

For most of the year, Lynne Chastain-Carpenter, MaryGrace Bedwell and Tray Hall work in different parts of the Forest Service with responsibilities that typically have little connection to fire suppression.

But when called, they leave their day jobs behind to head to a wildfire where their specialized emergency response skills are needed. They are among the 10,000 Forest Service employees who are not full-time firefighters but maintain wildland fire qualifications.

The Forest Service refers to this part of its workforce as non-fire red-carded employees, or the fire militia, a term that reflects a longstanding culture within the agency.