By Mark Matthews
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, February 14, 2001; Page A23

MISSOULA, Mont. -- Seasonal firefighter Ken Homik feels like a college player awaiting the National Basketball Association's draft day as the U.S. Forest Service this week begins processing applications to fill 1,600 new firefighter positions.

The agency plans to fill 3,500 new fire positions by June, funded by a $1.1 billion allocation inspired by last summer's devastating wild-land blazes.

If he gets a job, Homik, a graduate student at Montana University's School of Forestry, has a lot to gain besides an inside track on future career opportunities in fuels management. A permanent position, whether full or part time, will provide health insurance and retirement benefits, things he's gone without while digging the fire-line with the Lolo hot-shot crew the past few summers.

"The fringe benefits are pretty huge," Homik said.

In the past few years, the agency has operated its fire division at 70 percent capacity; these new hires "will bring us up to 100 percent." said Harry Croft, acting director of fire and aviation at Forest Service headquarters in Washington. "It's an opportunity for us to develop a work force for the future."

Federal forest officials hope there'll be enough qualified candidates to go around. "We're crossing our fingers," said Tim Harbour, Region Four director of fire and aviation in Ogden, Utah.

Fire managers expect many of the jobs to be filled by veteran firefighters such as Homik. "A lot of people have built up some good ability. It will be predominantly internal promotions for the higher grades. There may be some shortage of experienced people when we begin to fill positions at the GS-5 level," Harbour said.

Because applicants were allowed to apply for jobs with nine national forests at one time, managers won't know for a while where the dust will settle. Not only are forests within regions competing for job candidates, regions are going head to head -- not to mention competing with other agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management and Department of Interior, which are also expanding their firefighting forces.

The biggest competition will be for qualified helicopter attack managers and hot-shot crew supervisors and assistant supervisors. The funding provides for 12 new 20-person hot-shot crews, most of which will be stationed in the West. Once a fire grows, hot-shot crews try to contain the blaze by quickly encircling it with a 18-inch trench that exposes noncombustible mineral soil. The crews are dispatched from their home forest to fires across the country.

"We've always had a shortage of Type I crews," Croft said.

Most of the other hires will bolster initial attack crews at district forests. Those include three-person crews that search for fires after lightning storms and try to douse them before they spread beyond a quarter acre.

Despite the expansion of the firefighting force, the public can still expect smoky horizons during the nation's various regional fire seasons, especially during drought years, Croft warns.

"Now, we think we will be able to catch more fires before they become big ones," Croft said. "These new hires will strengthen our capability to prevent fires from becoming more costly."