Fighting Wild Fires: A Summer Job for College Students That Can Pay $3,000-$5,000 Per Month

Few summer jobs offer students a chance to earn more money than fighting forest fires. Bruce Ferguson, president of Ferguson Management Company, a wild land firefighting company headquartered in Albany, Oregon, estimates that entry-level firefighters could earn $3,000 to $5,000 a month during peak fire season months of June, July and August.

According to Ferguson, his company prefers to hire college students. "The reason we really like college students is that they are probably a couple of clicks in intelligence greater than the average person off the street," he said. With many students taking at least four years to earn a degree, Ferguson figures that they "will be around for awhile," giving the company a pool of experienced personnel every summer.

Becoming a wild land firefighter requires potential hires to attend a four day, 32 hour certification course. FMC, like most fire fighting companies, does not charge for the certification class but does not pay recruits for attending either. Ferguson says that attending the class is no guarantee of being hired. "We look at them and see how they are during the course. We rank them on who is going to be called up first," he said.

While the course teaches basic fire behavior and safety Ferguson says the most important thing new firefighters can do to stay safe is "unplug their ears and listen (to the crew boss) when the fat hits the fire."

Once a new firefighter has his or her certification, they wait for a call up. The Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management have their own fire crews but do to budget shortfalls are increasingly relying on private firms like FMC to provide the bulk of the manpower on large fires. "The government has told us we better be ready to go this year, because of the budget cuts their resources are gravely depleted," Ferguson said.