How to become a REMS (Rescue Guy) on Wildfires - Steps, Reqs, Guidance & more

July 24, 2025

Free Online Courses (req). Create an account at both sites, complete courses. For courses S-130, 190 and L-180 on the Wild Land Learning Portal, scroll down and create an account after clicking the link. Took me (Chris) 2-3 days for all.

In Person Courses. Most private companies will have training days a couple times per year. These days usually cover all necessary in-person certs. In my case, I was unable to attend the company sponsored days. I called a few companies and googled upcoming courses, paid $250 and attended a day long course that knocked them out. You can view upcoming courses for free on The Journey Man (more info on them below).

  • Work Capacity Test, Arduous (3 mile ruck w/ 45 lbs in under 45 mins)
  • S-130BL, Firefighter Training (Blended) *Field Day* (all day, cutting line, rolling hose, +, classroom)
  • ROV Basic Driver Course (couple hours)

Rope Skills If you don't already have these, the company you want to work for probably has training days that include training / providing rope certs. If your company won't hire you without already having rope skills, consider paying out of pocket and attending a rope rescue course on your own. You can find upcoming courses on The Journey Man (more on them below). If you can't find courses that make sense for you on TJM, google 'rope technician courses' and find one that works. Expect a 3-7 day course and $500-$2,500 cost. Do know, a fast course like this will only teach you the bare bones. You will need a lot of OJT and teaching from higher skilled teammates to become truly competent with rope rescue.

  • Rope Operator, Rope Technician or higher.

EMTs

  • NREMT
  • State EMT license
  • BLS
  • Any other relevant medical certs you have

Paramedics

  • NREMT-P
  • State Paramedic license
  • BLS card
  • ACLS card
  • PALS card
  • Any other relevant med certs you have

How/where to get a job:

  • Talk to anyone you know on a team and see if their company has work.
  • Create a free candidate profile on The Journey Man Journeyman.web/signup. It's a wildland resource where firefighters can find REMS and other wildland jobs, upcoming training courses and more. You'll see wildland companies that are hiring and you can contact/be contacted by them.
  • Create a free job seeker account on DangerousJobs.com Dangerousjobs.com/signup
  • Employers will browse profiles and reach out to you. Complete your profile to the highest degree possible!
  • Google 'REMS teams', 'wildland rescue teams' etc and apply to the companies that populate. Calls are better than emails.

Pay (industry standards)

  • EMTs with rope skills: $600-$800/day
  • Paramedics with rope skills: $800-$1000/day
  • Leadership roles may exceed the listed amounts
  • Do not work for less than the numbers above.
  • Often times, you will do the work now but not be paid in full until the whole fire is paid out. For example, you may work for two weeks from June 1 - June 14th, but not be paid until Aug 1. Government contracts are slow to pay out and a month or two of waiting is pretty typical. Some companies pay you smaller sums throughout the waiting period to tide you over. For example, a company I've worked for will pay their people $4,000 per month out of their cash reserves until the fire pays out. Once the fire pays out, the company gets paid and you get paid the rest that you are owed.

Danger scale

  • 3/10. If you had to extricate someone who is crushed under a tree, things could become 'a little' dangerous. A longer, slower problem is smoke inhalation, it just happens sometimes when the wind shifts unfavorably. People are also occasionally killed while fighting forest fires (such as the Granite Mountain Hotshots, RIP), but those incidents are usually people deeper into the fire and are extremely rare.

Downsides

  • Pay / employment can be sporadic. Less fires = Less work.
  • Jobs are uncertain. When your company sees a contract and bids on it, they should give you a heads up. You'll now wait with your phone nearby for the next three hours. You'll look at flights, double check your bags and be ready to bounce. Much of the time you get all wound up and excited to go, then find out you're not going. Loser!
  • When you get do get the call that you're going, you basically drop everything and go to the airport or drive to the meeting point. At a family party? Too bad. The contract often states that your team must be in place on the fire 8-24 hours from the moment you're awarded the contract. Since you will likely have to fly to your company's building and drive the trailers with your team to the fire (usually in the middle of nowhere), you better get moving! If the team cannot wait for you to arrive to start driving the trailers, you may fly to an airport en-route and be picked up on the way.

Other Info

Attach all relevant docs into one email/folder. When you are applying somewhere, send your package with everything you've done attached and ready to go so they know you're dialed and have taken the initiative.

The online courses listed above can be taken fully in person too, but expect to pay out of pocket and spend longer doing them that way.

It's helpful to have documentation of your past continued education/OJT. Examples include skills refreshers, training days, relevant documented training that shows you are continuously maintaining/improving your skills.

What does it mean to be 'Red Carded': To be 'Red Carded' means you are certified to go onto an active wildfire. AKA: You have all the appropriate certs completed and are qualified to be out on the line. Each specific agency/company you work for will issue you a red card. If I am hired as a REMS guy for Company A, they will request all my certs and quals. I send them my certs, they verify the quals then provide me with a 'Red Card'. Now instead of carrying 10+ documents around to fires, I can just carry a copy of my Red Card. If I decide to then go work for company B, the process is repeated and I must get a red card issued from company B. If a company you are applying to asks if you are 'red carded', they are probably trying to ask 'are all your certs/quals complete?'

Useful links

DangerousJobs signup (free): https://dangerousjobs.com/seeker/signup

The Journey Man signup (free): https://journeyman.web.app/signup

If you want to stay up to speed and follow my adventures;

IG: chris.barnett_ and: dangerousjobs_

TikTok: chris.barnett_

Youtube: Chris_Barnett_official