Direct link to December 2021 Video from NBC News on YouTube
I am in the midst of reading a book called When it All Burns by Jordan Thomas. A dear friend of mine in southern California read a review of this book, published earlier in 2025, and sent me the article as she thought that I would be interested in reading the book. Well, she was right, I started reading this book a few days ago and am learning a lot. Thomas, an Anthropologist, served on the Los Padres Hotshots in 2021. He writes about his experience on the Los Padres Hotshots in the very tough 2021 wildfire season in California. He also writes about a variety of issues about wildfires and hotshot crews. As fate would have it, I am in the midst of reading about a wildfire that the Los Padres Hotshot crew worked in the Sequoia National Forest in 2021.
I have been wondering how to share some of what I am learning from reading Thomas's book when I ran across this 2021 video that I am sharing here, uploaded in December 2021 by NBC News. Among other things they cover a wildfire in the Sequoia National Forest as well as the low pay that hotshots received at the time. Thomas talked about the low pay that hotshots receive in his book. I have no idea what the current pay is for hotshot crews at this time and whether the changes in pay that Biden promised in his Infrastructure Bill (referenced in the video) were passed on to the hotshot crews. Judging from one of the comments on the video, it seems that Biden’s bill was passed but the increased pay never made it to hotshot crews as of June 2022. Nor do I know if Biden’s bill is still in effect. Hotshot crews should be paid much more than minimum wage.
Reading Thomas’s book and watching this video has had a profound effect on me and I am learning a lot.
