A Brief But Spectacular take on being a wildland firefighter amid climate change

Sarah Jakober is a U.S. Forest Service wildland firefighter who serves on the Grand Ronde Rappel Crew based in Grande, Oregon. She shares her Brief But Spectacular take on being a wildland firefighter. Jakober provides a window into a day on the job as climate change lengthens wildfire seasons and intensifies their impact.

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Amna Nawaz: Well, as climate change continues to stir a debate in the election, we take a look at the on-the-ground reality for those dealing with its consequences.

Sarah Jakober is a U.S. Forest Service wildland firefighter who serves on the Grande Ronde Rappel Crew based in La Grande, Oregon. In her Brief But Spectacular take, she offers a window into a day on the job, as climate change lengthens wildfire seasons and intensifies their impact.

Sarah Jakober, U.S. Forest Service: People think of a stereotypical Firefighter as someone working for a city department, driving in a red truck, paramedic-type folks, and that is not what we do.

We fight fire in the natural landscape. I work on a rappel crew, which means that I have staff a helicopter. We arrive at the fire, we size it up, and then we rappel out and ideally put the fire out. I remember the first time I rappelled out of the helicopter.

I don’t remember consciously feeling fear. There’s a very analytical process behind everything, and it cuts the fear out or works around things in a more logical way. When I was 18, I took a job fighting wildland fire to help pay for college. By the time I graduated undergrad, I had done four or five years of firefighting and I had really enjoyed it.

And I could do what I wanted in the winter and always return to work in the summer. It’s physically and emotionally adventurous. You’re working in these complex and risky environments with a small team of people. And so it’s all about enduring things together.

I am one of three women on my module. I primarily work with men. Peak fire season for us in the Pacific Northwest is generally July, August, September. Fires that I’m responding to are becoming harder to control. They’re getting bigger faster.

From my perspective as a firefighter, the link between climate change and the fires that I’m fighting is pretty common knowledge. Anyone with a smartphone can figure this out.

My biggest concern is what we may encounter in the future. I don’t know if we know what that is and I don’t know if we know how that is going to tax us as firefighters. Are we today able to go out and do our jobs and how is that going to look for us? We will respond to fires that will get big quickly.

We will see fire behavior shift from a relatively benign and active fire to all of a sudden it’s running and we’re no longer able to physically do anything with our hands. We’re just having to adopt different strategies quickly.

I will probably stay in this job longer than I’m willing to admit. I do wonder about having a family later. I don’t know how I would make that work with this job. My favorite part of the job is just being in the woods, we’re putting the fire out, and we’re just getting the work done.

Normally, when we’re out there doing our jobs, nobody even knows that we’re there.

My name is Sarah Jakober, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on being a wildland firefighter.

Amna Nawaz: And, as always, you can see more of our Brief But Spectacular videos at PBS.org/NewsHour/brief.