For Immediate Release:
Contact: Barb Perkins (303) 239-3668

BLM Begins Hiring 140 Fire Employees in Colorado

About 40 permanent and 100 temporary employees will be hired by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Colorado for firefighting and fire management positions over the next few months. Most of these positions will be located on the western slope.

BLM will be hiring the following positions:

- Fire Engine Leader and Crews
- Hot Shot Crew Personnel
- Prescribed Fire/Fuels Reduction Crews
- Fire Education/Prevention Specialists
- Dispatchers

Individuals may apply for the temporary season positions via the Internet, at between December 15, 2000 and January 15, 2001. For those without access to the Internet, application material can be obtained by calling BLM’s seasonal job line, (303) 236-6706. Beginning pay rates typically start at $8.71 per hour.

Permanent full-time and career seasonal positions are advertised on the Internet at Recruitment efforts have already begun for some of these vacancies. Pay varies according to the requirements of the position, and experience and education of the individual.

Applicants must be U.S. citizens, 18 years or older, and may have to pass a physical fitness and/or a drug test.

Legislation signed by President Clinton significantly increased budgets for the agencies with fire management programs – BLM, the National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior; and the Forest Service, in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"We just finished one of the most difficult fire seasons in the last 50 years," said Larry Hamilton, director of BLM’s National Office of Fire and Aviation. "The increased funding doesn’t guarantee we’ll be exempt from tough seasons in the future, but it does allow us to be as prepared as possible for whatever Nature sends our way."

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