Federal wildland firefighters battling a wave of destructive blazes across the West describe burnout, shrinking crews, and thinning veteran ranks as the Trump administration reshapes the government's fire response mid-season, according to interviews published Saturday by The Washington Post.

As of Saturday, the National Interagency Fire Center reported 40 large uncontained fires burning nationwide, with more than 3.2 million acres blackened this year and the national preparedness level raised to 4 of 5.

"I'm so frustrated I could cry," one federal firefighter working Utah's Cottonwood Fire told The Post. He said crews are "treated like we're dispensable" and described a cratering morale as colleagues process the deaths a week earlier of three Rifle Helitack crew members overrun on the Snyder Fire along the Utah-Colorado border.

"We are reeling, devastated, and still trying to come to terms with it," he said. Two other firefighters were badly burned in the same incident.

The federal fireline workforce has thinned.

About 18,700 federal employees were available to fight fires in 2024.

That number is now just over 17,000, according to Forest Service and Interior Department figures cited by The Post. The Government Accountability Office reported June 4 that the Forest Service's overall workforce shrank by about 20% in response to a February 2025 executive order for large-scale workforce reductions.

The Forest Service says it is "stronger than ever, fully staffed and equipped to respond aggressively to every unplanned ignition."

The agency told The Post it has 11,719 wildland firefighters onboard, exceeding an 11,300 hiring target unchanged since April 2022, and can mobilize more than 28,000 responders when non-fire employees and administratively determined hires are included.

Internal staffing data from late June reviewed by The Post put the number of primary firefighters, those whose main duty is fighting fire, at about 9,000. The remainder counted toward the target, the agency confirmed, includes dispatchers and administrative positions.

The strain is landing on top of a structural change.

Earlier this year, the administration stood up a new U.S. Wildland Fire Service under the Interior Department and directed a return to full suppression, an approach that seeks to extinguish every fire quickly.

Firefighters told The Post the reorganization consumed the offseason normally used for training and hiring. One Helitack crew member said missing spotter positions have forced him to shift people around, and that the suppression push has raised risk.

On a recent assignment, he said, his pilot pulled out over air-traffic congestion despite pressure to keep dropping water. "We said no."

The deeper worry is the loss of experience.

Stanford wildfire researcher Michael Wara told The Post the West is "hitting the limits of available resources across the Lower 48," warning that layoffs and departures have shrunk what he called the federal fire militia.

A Forest Service suppression team leader in Colorado said that one of his engines may go unstaffed due to a lack of crew, and that veteran leaders are gone.

"We simply don't have the experience and qualifications to backfill them," he said. Peak fire weather in California and the Pacific Northwest has not yet arrived.