I'm at around 840 hours overtime for the year. that comes out to 2,920 hours worked for the year. Just did some math and that is 16 extra hours for every 40 hour work week so its basically like working 7 days a week for a year straight. However, those overtime hours were pretty much all in the span of 5 months during our busiest peak in fire season. 16 hour days for up to 14 days straight. If you do your full 14 days on a fire you get guaranteed 3 days R&R now instead of the 2 we used to get.
For the last 4.5 years I have lived next door to my fire station on the National Forest. It has been a blessing to have my 10 year old to be able to come over and hang out at the station and being able to bring a radio and pop in at home for a couple minutes a day.
My situation is changing next month and we will be moving back to Oklahoma to work on a 10 person prescribed fire hand crew but still being able to come out west and fight fire in the summer. I am changing agencies and will be with Bureau of Indian Affairs and burning tribal trust and adjacent land. We will assist local agencies as well as the National Forest there.
They tell me that they get 1000 hours overtime in their 6 month prescribed fire season because they travel the whole of the Eastern Oklahoma Region of the BIA and pull 12 hour/day doing fuels prep/reduction and 14 hour/day on burn days. Hotels, overtime, per diem. It's a lot of time on the road in the winter but more choice in workload in the summer. Regular schedule is a 5/9 hours a day and 4/9 hours a day 80 hour pay period, so a 2 & 3 day weekend every 2 week pay period.
I will have a 30 minute commute now but while it's a lot of hours there's 5 days off in a 14 day pay period and the ability to still go out to the west on assignments the I choose during fire season. If I want to stay home all summer and plan winter burns I can. If I want to go earn Hazard Pay and more overtime I can. I can go or stay depending on the assignment and what I have going on at home with the family in the summer (finally a summer vacation!). Also, my wife won't have to work anymore, we will be living in my childhood home, and my parents just built a brand new home 3 houses away. Kids will see grandparents every day.
We really wanted to have a traditional life and this affords it. It's cheaper cost of living, we already have the property, Mom can be a stay at home Mom (the way God intended) and raise our children in a home that produces our own food. She has attained a mastery of gardening and raising chickens and we plan to add goats and pigs. My brother in law is a cattle rancher in the area so we'll have beef too.