My biggest advice would be to not go into debt to pay for your flight training if at all possible. There are lots of different roads to the cockpit which won't involve ATP, or a 60K loan...My college education cost right around 60k, and that was including all flight training, with a total of around 30k itself....basically half and half. Prices have gone up, but it'd be better to go to a local airport on your days off / weekends and do flight training up through your commercial certificate (appx. 250 hrs). In the long run, i think you'll enjoy the flying more than you will at the fast track ATP type programs, and even if it takes a little longer for you to get where you want to be, you really shouldn't be in much of a hurry anyway. You'll learn some valuable flying skills, go to some cool destinations, and have your arms resting on the windowsill as you scream through the air at 100 mph. small airports also tend to have some great networking potential. So-in-so was a pilot for TWA, he stills know "blahblahblah" who hires for American, or "i've got a twin that i barely fly, if you put the gas in it, you can take it on your crosscountry flights". All of which can be valuable, when the time comes to work, you can do your CFI flying on the side, until you decide to dedicate more time to flying than firefighting, and really build your hours up, the key to that is at the point you're really building flight experience (after your 250 hrs, and your commercial and or instructor ratings) you'll be getting paid as opposed to paying to fly.The difficult task is supplementing the lost income from your previous career. best of luck.