How a ‘good fire’ in the Grand Canyon exploded into a raging inferno

Timothy Ingalsbee, another former Forest Service firefighter and the executive director of the nonprofit Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology, said the federal firefighting workforce has been shrinking for years due to an inability to recruit new employees for the remote, grueling work.

But losing so many experienced people this year created a huge and sudden “brain drain,” he said.