Imagine zipping up the mountain in a helicopter to fight a fire on a vertical side of mountain in high altitude. By the way, you’re a teenager and this is just your summer job.

“I was 19, in my second year on a fire engine crew in Garden Valley, Idaho, when Helitack invited us to get trained as helirapellers,” recalls Lorena Williams, a longtime wildland fire professional  with the US Forest Service. Helitack crews are firefighter teams flown to wildfires by helicopter, either landing nearby or rappelling from the hovering 'copter.

When NEEF first spoke with Williams in 2020, she had recently moved from frontline fire work into a public affairs role as partnership coordinator for the San Juan National Forest in southwest Colorado. Today, she is the forest’s public affairs officer, supervising the position she once held and leading communications that include one of the most consequential parts of her job: fire information. Her career has changed, but the through line has not. It still combines public lands, fire, service, and a willingness to follow an unexpected opportunity. 

A Summer Job that Opened a Door

While many teenagers work summer jobs as grocery store baggers or cashiers, Williams gravitated toward a more action-packed outdoor job. After watching her older sister work with the seasonal fire crews at the local Bureau of Land Management office (BLM), Williams applied for similar work with the US Forest Service (USFS). She enjoyed the camaraderie of the fire crews and satisfaction of saving people, property, and public lands from devastating wildfires.

“I got to work outside and be physically active and it was a grand adventure. At the same time, it was a good way to pay for college,” explains Williams. She was able to move around within the USFS, trying out different areas such as fire, recreation, trails, and wilderness.

Williams notes that most people who end up in career paths in land management agencies started as seasonals when they were young, helping them get a foot in the door. “In the land management agencies, having seasonal experience prior to applying for full-time jobs is of utmost importance.”

When it came to college, Williams started studying marine biology, geology, and forestry, but later switched to the liberal arts. She earned a BA in English and creative writing at Oregon State University and an MFA in environmental writing from Chatham University in Pittsburgh, PA.

Williams started school really wanting to have a job that took her outdoors, which was what drew her to study environmental science. But she struggled with the heavier science and math classes. Instead, she went with what she was good at—communications, English, and writing.

"The things I loved to do in my personal life did not align with what I was naturally good at—or so I thought.

“The things I loved to do in my personal life did not align with what I was naturally good at—or so I thought,” explains Williams. At the time, she thought she was giving up her dream of working outdoors. “I didn’t understand that I could work in Forest Service as a public affairs specialist who worked in communications and wrote for a living, and yet also go out in the field.”

Bringing fire and writing together 

Over time, Williams has found a way to bring those two worlds together. As a public affairs officer, she has moved from having firefighting as her primary job to helping communities understand firefighting: prescribed fire, smoke impacts, wildfire response, evacuations, and the decisions crews make on the ground. She has not left fire behind. Williams still goes on fire assignments, serves as a helicopter manager, remains involved in fire aviation, and works as a fixed-wing parking tender. “While I’m not out digging line anymore, I’m still involved in fire aviation and in fire and fire information primarily,” she says. For Williams, the move has brought together two parts of her life that once seemed unrelated. “While it seems really far away from fighting fire, it actually sort of brought my two different career paths together,” she says of combining her fire background with her master’s degree in creative writing. 

Turning fire jargon into plain language 

And those communication skills can matter most when people are frightened. In summer 2026, Williams worked on the Rio Blanco Fire near Pagosa Springs, Colorado, where about 240 homes were evacuated. Her job was not to dig fire line. It was to help residents understand what firefighters were doing to protect their homes and why. “The gap is a chasm,” Williams says of the distance between general public understanding of wildfire and the technical decisions crews must make during an active fire. Even in southwest Colorado, where residents are accustomed to wildfire and prescribed fire, questions change quickly when a fire is threatening homes. 

Why aren’t retardant planes dropping right now? Why are firefighters lighting backfires to fight the fire? Why use a helicopter instead of a plane? What is a burnout operation? What does containment actually mean? 

Williams and other fire information staff translate those decisions into plain language through public meetings, videos, daily updates, social media, and conversations with residents. During the Rio Blanco Fire, the team created educational posts explaining topics such as burnout operations, fire line, containment line, and why water trucks draft from rivers. When people responded with comments such as “I understand better” or thanked the team for explaining a frightening situation, Williams knew the information was helping.

Why Fire Information Matters

• During the Rio Blanco Fire near Pagosa Springs, about 240 homes were evacuated.
• Williams and the fire information team explained terms such as burnout operations, fire lines, containment, water drafting, and other tactics residents were seeing around them.
• Their goal was simple: help people understand what crews were doing, why they were doing it, and what it meant for their homes and community.

She also watches for the opposite signals. Repeated questions to call centers, rumors spreading in the community, or confusion at public meetings can reveal where more explanation is needed. “The way that fire crews speak to each other is a little bit of an alien language,” Williams says. “It’s taking that away and telling the story in plain language.” 

How wildfire response is changing 

The job has also given Williams a close view of how wildfire response itself is changing, particularly around firefighter safety. 

One major change is the Incident Strategic Alignment Process, a decision-making approach Williams says she began seeing used more frequently around 2022. Fire managers weigh four factors: the critical values at risk, possible strategic actions, risk to responders, and the probability of success. A remote fire in steep terrain with no homes or infrastructure nearby may call for a different response than a fire threatening a community. 

“We used to just respond, just everybody go,” Williams says. The newer approach asks a harder question before putting firefighters in danger: what are we asking them to risk their lives for? Williams calls the process one of the most important changes she has seen in wildland fire during her career because it helps reduce unnecessary exposure to dangerous conditions.

 Technology is reducing risk, too. Williams describes unmanned aircraft systems, or drones, as a “game changer” over the past decade. They can map fires, detect heat with infrared cameras, provide aerial views, and even help ignite prescribed fires, tasks that once required a staffed helicopter or airplane. That can mean fewer people in the air, lower costs, and less risk to firefighters. 

What students can learn from her path 

What advice would Williams give students considering a career in firefighting or public lands?

 “Start early! Contact the office you want to work for and develop personal relationships,” she advises. “When you put your name in a job applicant pool, it’s nationwide. You need to stand out, so go in person or make a phone call.” 

Williams also stresses the importance of those first jobs in younger years. “My fire experience is what drew me into the agency, provided me with the necessary background and knowledge, and gave me hands-on fieldwork,” she says. “For me, it was years working as a seasonal firefighter that gave me the information I need to do my job now.” 

Twenty-five years into her Forest Service career, Williams sees an even broader lesson for young people: the first job does not have to reveal the entire path. Seasonal fire work led her into public lands. Writing, which once seemed like a move away from outdoor work, eventually became central to the way she serves communities during wildfires. 

“I never could have planned it…Sometimes not planning is the best plan.

“I never could have planned it…Sometimes not planning is the best plan.” Williams says she is still surprised by how many ways there are to build a meaningful career serving public lands, whether through fire, communications, recreation, partnerships, science, or other work. “I take my job as a public servant really seriously,” she says. “I’m really proud of the work that we do with the Forest Service and with fire in particular, your ability to help people. It really goes a long way.” 

For students who are curious about fire service, a seasonal job can still be a doorway. Explore careers in wildland fire and fire aviation, talk with staff at a local land management office, and look for opportunities to gain hands-on experience. And for anyone living in fire-prone areas, learning how and why firefighters make decisions can be an important part of being prepared before smoke is in the air. 

Educators and parents can help students explore careers in the fire service, including opportunities in fire service, including jobs in wildland fire and fire aviation. And don’t forget to check out the fire prevention educational materials available from the USFS.

^{Originally published: October 2020 • by Lisa Beach • Updated} 

^{The views expressed by Lorena Williams in this interview are entirely her own and do not represent the views of the US Forest Service.}