Forest Fire Inspectors and Prevention Specialists

Mixed — a routine tier and a judgment tier. At 13 the split is honest: the fuels inventory, defensible-space inspection, and origin-and-cause walk-through still require someone standing in the burn scar reading char patterns and grass stem indicators, but the fire-danger index calculation, permit intake, weather-station interpretation, and the daily prevention report that used to eat an afternoon are already being produced by NFDRS feeds and camera networks like ALERTWildfire — enough of the job has been peeled off to keep it out of the 14+ band.

Hands-on in uncontrolled environments. 17 reflects that a normal shift means patrolling unpaved roads in fire weather, climbing to lookout posts, entering ash-covered structures during origin investigation, and inspecting slash piles and chimneys on private parcels in steep terrain — uncontrolled ground, smoke, heat, and no way to substitute a sensor for a boots-on-site fuels judgment; short of 20 only because a meaningful share of the week is spent on permits, plan review, and public-education briefings indoors.

Certification preferred, not legally required. 8 because NWCG qualification cards (FPI, INVF) and red-card currency are real gatekeepers agencies enforce, but they are agency-issued task books rather than a state licence — nobody revokes a professional licence over your findings, and when your cause determination goes to civil cost-recovery litigation it is the agency and its counsel carrying the exposure, not your personal certification.

Some relationship component. 10 fits because getting a rancher to clear slash or a homeowner to cut brush around a structure runs on the fact that you are the same inspector who came by last season and did not write a citation — but the relationship is a compliance lever, not the deliverable, and much of the output (permits, danger postings, fuels data) reaches people who never learn your name.

Exists to be accountable for ambiguous calls. 14 is earned by the origin-and-cause call — you decide whether a fire was arson, equipment, or lightning, knowing that determination drives prosecution and cost recovery — plus discretionary calls on shutting down permitted burning, declaring industrial fire precaution levels, and whether a property passes defensible-space inspection when the standard says 'adequate'; it stops short of the highest band because burn-permit conditions and clearance distances come from written agency prescriptions.