Farenheit 451 in California - Firefighters making $400K per year with OT

I’ve seen this bitterness off and on for years. I am 18 years into my job as a fireman in a large city. We have over 1000 paid firefighters.

This OP has taken the bait served up to make us look bad. It’s usually because local government is trying to cut pay or get into our pension fund. They use this tactic quite well.
If in fact mismanaged tax dollars is to blame, such as not spending funds for forestry clearing and misappropriating those millions elsewhere, then they point the finger at the fireman and try knocking the teeth out of the men and women cleaning up their mess.

I find it really hard to believe ANY firefighter is making over 400k, but let me explain how they might possibly be able to legitimately claim that. If a Captains salary in CA makes 150,000 and he/she is on a federal woodland team then they are paid by them as well. If said Captain is on the drop (officially retired, but stays working due to the city not hiring enough new personnel)(it’s cheaper, they don’t have to pay benefits), then their pension is paying them what they have earned, the city is paying them as a Captain, and the feds are paying them. So 150k salary, 110k pension (their own savings+city contributions), 80k federal and overtime (a guess?) might get them somewhere close to 400k but part of that is the money they have saved over their 30 year career. All with the hardest most danagerous work you could imagine (I don’t want to be out there) and not being at home for weeks at a time. It’s not like a white collar worker going out of town, if you are there you are working, with little sleep.

To the OP, try not to listen to these crooked CA politicians, and don’t talk out your —- on a subject you don’t know anything about.

PS- If I google my name it pulls up my job and salary published. They did this a while back trying to cut our pension, which unfortunately they succeeded at.