Newsom told NBC News last month that the fires would be the costliest in U.S. history in terms of destruction.
NBC News witnessed U.S. Forest Service firefighters respond to the Palisades Fire, and they also battled the Eaton Fire in Angeles National Forest, where they deployed five large air tankers, 10 firefighting helicopters and dozens of fire engines, according to the publication Government Executive, which covers federal business news.
Federal crews are credited with saving a neighborhood in the Eaton Fire, according to video obtained by KTLA-TV of Los Angeles.
The Forest Service, the largest of the federal firefighting agencies, is under a departmentwide hiring freeze, according to a Jan. 21 memo from Gary Washington, acting secretary of the Agriculture Department, which oversees the agency.
“At this time, there are no exceptions to the hiring freeze with respect to the Department,” he wrote. “Accordingly, effective immediately, agencies and offices are not authorized to extend an offer of employment to any person. Persons to whom an offer of employment has been extended, but acceptance has not been received, shall be contacted immediately and be informed that the offer has been revoked.”
Steve Gutierrez, a member of the National Federation of Federal Employees, confirmed that offers had been revoked and said the hiring freeze is made more complicated by other efforts to thin the federal workforce when there is already a shortage of federal firefighters.
Gutierrez, a 15-year veteran with the Forest Service on hotshot crews and engines, said thousands of firefighters on probationary status are at risk of termination, as well.
“I was hoping that there would be an exception or exemption to this,” Gutierrez said.
A federal hiring freeze in 2017 exempted firefighters.
The Interior Department said in a statement Thursday that it is “implementing President Donald J. Trump’s Executive Order across the federal civilian workforce.”
The Forest Service said in a statement that it is “actively working with OPM on its wildland firefighting positions,” referring to the White House Office of Personnel Management.
The National Park Service, the White House and the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, which coordinates the efforts of federal firefighters, did not respond to requests for comment.
Sergio Gor, the White House director of presidential personnel, told Fox News, referring to the freeze but not firefighters specifically, that “the hiring freeze in place is enabling us to vet new people coming in and to other positions, also, but you have to clean house. Look, it’s one of those things.”
Gutierrez, the union leader, said that in addition to the hiring freeze, a buyout offer letter sent to the federal workforce also went to current federal firefighters.
“I don’t know how this could happen,” he said. “I think it’s a slap in the face to these brave men and women who are out there contributing to the public service and saving communities, only to be on the hillside saying, ‘Hey, here’s your resignation letter — sign by this date.’”
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