CA To Add Nearly 1,400 Firefighters Amid Second Straight Dry Year

SACRAMENTO, CA — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday announced the state will hire nearly 1,400 additional firefighters amid fears that a second straight dry winter will trigger a second straight year of wildfire catastrophe.

The state’s $80.74 million Emergency Fund adds 1,399 firefighters to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) to bolster fuels management and wildfire response efforts.

Although forecasting wildfires is inherently unpredictable, there are many worrisome indicators.

The state’s most recent snow survey estimates the snowpack to be around 60 percent and about 90 percent of California is already experiencing drought conditions, The Associated Press reports.

“In California, climate change is making the hots hotter and the dries drier, leaving us with world record-breaking temperatures and devastating wildfires threatening our communities,” Newsom said in a statement Wednesday.

“We aren’t just waiting for the next crisis to hit – this funding will support our heroic firefighters to save lives as they work to prevent and tackle destructive wildfires.”

The increased funding follows an especially destructive year from a wildfire standpoint.

Wildfires in 2020 torched a record-breaking 4.2 million acres, or an estimated 4 percent of the state’s land, The Associated Press reports.

Some 10,488 structures were damaged or destroyed and at least 31 were killed in 2020, which was described as the year of the “megafire.”

Five of the state’s six biggest fires recorded since 1932 occurred in 2020.

The Emergency Fund authorizes a surge of 1,256 seasonal firefighters for maximum flexibility through June 30.

The state will onboard 24 seasonal firefighters for California National Guard hand crews who will support Cal Fire’s fuels management work.

The funding will also provide 119 firefighters to staff CAL FIRE “helitack” crews earlier in the year, to allow them time to train and be operationally ready by May 2021.

The training includes the orientation and operations of new S-70i helicopter to operate from four CAL FIRE helitack bases.

Improved technology to support incident base camp operations, including website traffic management, will improve transparency and accuracy of information for the public.

Newsom proposed $1 billion in his January budget for a Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan that aims to ramp up the pace of wildland management to meet the goal of completing projects on 500,000 acres annually by 2025 and expand the use of prescribed burns.

The plan aims to build breaks around vulnerable communities, expand home hardening and increase defensible space.

The budget proposal also includes a $143 million General Fund to support 30 new fire crews, and $48 million for S-70i helicopters and large air tankers.