"RICHMOND, Virginia - Eric Wiersma says there's an 80% chance he'll quit his job helping direct crews to U.S. wildfires if office staff like him are denied new benefits intended for federal firefighters.

And he is not alone.

As wildland fire dispatchers - hundreds of men and women who direct action in the field - grapple with long hours, intense stress and ever more frequent and vicious fires, efforts to tame the flames look increasingly precarious.

"Just from the people I have talked to in dispatch, I think you're going to see a mass exodus," said Wiersma, assistant center manager for the Missouri-Iowa Interagency Coordination Center."

David Sherfinski reports for Thomson Reuters Foundation April 27, 2023. [2]