Do any of yall work in disaster relief?
Posted by HardcoreLurker12@reddit | overlanding | View on Reddit | 24 comments
Ran into someone that worked in this field today and I thought this kind of work is perfect for an overlander.
I might need a career switch…
shadow247@reddit
My friend does Fire crew work. He doesnt actually fight fires. Hes on a crew that digs fire lines miles away from the fire to hopefully stop the spread. He made great money and only spent about half the year actually deployed.
emejim@reddit
I don't work in disaster relief. However, I work in disaster management. Yes, it comes in quite handy having a vehicle that is self-sufficient and four-wheel drive. A lot of the same things that I use for my off-road camping coming quite handy when I'm deployed to a disaster area.
HardcoreLurker12@reddit (OP)
Can I ask what’s the pay to work in this field ?
emejim@reddit
Sorry for the late response. I'm on a 2-1/2 week camping trip and not checking my messages regularly. I get paid pretty well. I work for a fire department and I am assigned to a couple of IMTs. When I go on deployments, I generally get overtime for a sizable chunk of my time away.
gatorintheco@reddit
Can agree on this one, but the pay does vary based on location and most of it is temporary unless you are on staff for a contractor for direct disaster relief. Another option is to volunteer for your local emergency management agency or sheriff for search and rescue.
dougisnotabitch@reddit
Local disasters maybe. For federal ESF deployments we get a FEMA packing list with weight and size restrictions. Basically a 72hr kit with whatever PPE your roll entails. Packing light is not how most overlanders I know roll!
SquareSurprise3467@reddit
I dont work direct disaster relief. But some of my co-workers go to help with storm restoration and love being self sufficient when the grid is down.
paulkempf@reddit
Volunteer. Troopy is fully sick
DonSol0@reddit
I work in critical infrastructures cybersecurity and am a registered volunteer with FEMA. I haven’t been called up yet though :(
HardcoreLurker12@reddit (OP)
That’s what I’m talking about ! Can I ask what’s the pay for something like this
paulkempf@reddit
Volunteering means you don't get paid lol
n93s@reddit
Are your ambos volunteers? In nsw they’re paid, if you have an ambo ride you receive a bill
paulkempf@reddit
It's a combination of paid and vollies. They still charge you :)
CrowBlownWest@reddit
Yeah but not in the cool way. I repair flood and fire damaged houses during disasters (and when there’s not disasters it’s just repairs due to regular leaks/plumbing/fires)
JCDU@reddit
I'd love most of the job but couldn't deal with the dead/injured/traumatised people aspect of it.
Rippofunk@reddit
This. I am glad other people are able to deal with this. I have had a few unfortunate experiences of being the first person at an accident and no way would want that every day.
MojaveMac@reddit
Look into a job at a federal land management agency, and then join the fire “militia”. At my office about half the people are “red carded” which means they are qualified to support large incident response. The pay is your regular job pay, regardless of what job you do on a fire. And then you get paid overtime at time and a half, and they recently added incident response premium pay (look it up, for me it’s about $188/day). You go out for generally at least two weeks straight, staying in a large “camp” that has food, showers, some even have laundry services. Most people camp in tents, but there are also some awesome overland rigs that people bring. An assignment can be 14 to 21 days, then three days paid leave, then back to another assignment. You can turn down assignments if you don’t want to be gone all summer.
You’ve asked about pay a lot. Look at the GS pay scale hourly rate. That’s how much federal employees make. On a 14 day assignment, you are getting up to 144 hours of overtime in two weeks, plus the incident response premium pay. If you do a job that’s hazardous, like firefighting, you get an additional 25% bump.
There are all sorts of jobs on a federal fire, finance, planning, ops, gis, public info, driver, safety, camp manager, etc etc etc. https://iqcsweb.nwcg.gov/sites/default/files/inline-files/Position_List_Website_2.xlsx
No-Squirrel6645@reddit
honestly, I would talk to a lot of people in the field - make calls. its an exhausting weird field and its not pretty
Ballamookieofficial@reddit
I could never do it but my friend is a remote area fire fighter and it's hard work.
Muted_Ad_461@reddit
Honestly, that does sound like a great fit for someone into overlanding. Being prepared, staying calm, adapting to rough conditions, and making the most of your setup all seem like they’d translate really well. Might be worth looking into if it’s got you thinking like that.
topsyturvy76@reddit
What’s it pay?
HardcoreLurker12@reddit (OP)
He told me $1500-$200 a week but you’re working like 70 hours he said
topsyturvy76@reddit
Where’s home base?
Dolstruvon@reddit
Work in search and rescue and vessel recovery, but that's at sea. So not really anything overlanding related, but there's definitely a lot of knowledge I can take back to the overlanding and offroad field. I have thought about it a few times to join equivalent volunteer rescue and support organizations on land, where you use your private car quite a lot, so people there tend to get some rugged AWDs like a Volvo XC70 or something bigger 4x4 like a Land Cruiser