Federal Union Blasts Montana GOP Senate Hopeful For 'Disdain' Of Wildland Firefighters

The blistering remarks come after HuffPost first revealed that Tim Sheehy accused wildland firefighters of laziness and “milking” fires for overtime pay.

A union representing thousands of federal wildland firefighters excoriated Montana GOP Senate hopeful Tim Sheehy after he accused firefighters of dragging their feet to put out infernos and “milking” disasters for overtime pay.

“Sheehy’s comments are not only unfounded and disrespectful of wildland firefighters across the country, but they also show a severe lack of understanding of the essential and dangerous work these brave men and women do to defend our country from devastating fires – especially communities in Montana,” said Randy Erwin, the national president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, in a press release dated Thursday.

“Sheehy’s disdain for firefighters is out of step with true Montanans and the rest of America,” he added.

Erwin’s blistering takedown comes about two weeks after HuffPost first reported that Sheehy, who made millions running an aerial firefighting company that relies heavily on lucrative federal contracts, has repeatedly claimed, with little evidence, that a significant number of boots-on-the-ground firefighters are standing around while wildfires rage.

In the 2023 book “Mudslingers: A True Story of Aerial Firefighting,” Sheehy described an encounter with firefighters battling blazes in Idaho in 2015. He wrote that one firefighting pilot told him of the blaze: “We don’t want it to go too fast. ... There’s a lot of overtime pay to be earned out there! We put it out, it’s back on salary!’”