When dispatch calls, they are counting on us to be prepared and ready to respond to an incident. There are plenty of challenges presented to call-when-needed resources when they have to stop their everyday business activities or leave regular jobs to respond to wildfire incidents. Sometimes we cannot respond fast enough to accept orders under these conditions, let alone if we have to add more administrative burden and additional limitations to fielding personnel for fire assignments.

When a company turns a resource order down, it is then offered to the next vendor on the list. When there is an imminent threat to life and property, that list is prioritized by proximity to the incident. Every phone call that dispatch has to make increases the response time significantly. That means, if more orders have to be declined because of additional administrative burdens due to the implementation of MSPA, that it will take longer for the next resource in line to respond than it would have if the system was working as intended.

At national Preparedness Level 5, when nearly all resources are committed, making it a violation of federal law for some contract resources to respond to wildfires will undoubtedly lead to unnecessary destruction of property and even increased risk of injury or death to other firefighting resources and even the public. 

When you add in the expected number of companies that would go out of business and the number of firefighters who will leave the workforce should the MSPA be applied to all contract wildland firefighting vendors, the reality of the threat to our ability to respond as a nation to wildland fire emergencies becomes crystal clear. MSPA is not a law suitable to an emergency response industry.

Applicability to Wildland Fire 

Fact Sheet #63 – Not Applicable 

29 CFR 500 – Not Applicable 

29 USC 1801 et seq. – Not Applicable 

Bresgal V. Brock – US District Court Oregon – Not Part of Trial 

Bresgal V. Brock – 9th Circuit Court of Appeals – Not Discussed 

Consistent Application of Agricultural Laws – No Consistency 

Possibility for 100% Compliance in Emergency Services – Not Possible 

Employee Protections – No New Protections 

Impacts on Employees – Negative Impacts  

Impacts on Workforce – Negative Impacts 

Impacts on incident response – Negative Impacts 

29 CFR 500.105(b)(2)(x) requires any truck when used for the transportation of migrant or seasonal agricultural workers, if such workers are being transported in excess of 600 miles, shall be stopped for a period of not less than eight consecutive hours either before or upon completion of 600 miles travel, and either before or upon completion of any subsequent 600 miles travel to provide rest for drivers and passengers. When life or property is threatened by a wildfire, incidents will routinely ask firefighters to immediately engage in fire suppression, whenever it is safe to do so, and to mitigate their work to rest ratio once the emergency conditions have passed. Engaging in firefighting activities under these circumstances in order to protect life and property would constitute a violation of the MSPA.