Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday that he has approved roughly $81 million in emergency funding to support Cal Fire’s hiring of 1,399 new firefighters in anticipation of this year’s fire season.
The $80.74 million will enable Cal Fire to hire 1,256 seasonal firefighters through the end of the fiscal year on June 30.
Those seasonal firefighters will join eight understaffed existing crews and allow Cal Fire to staff 12 new crews as well as six seasonal and six permanent Conservation Corps crews, which assist in mitigating wildland fires.
“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 media release announcing the funding.
The roughly $81 million will also fund the addition of 24 seasonal firefighters for the California National Guard and 119 Cal Fire helicopter crew members.
Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, lauded Newsom for the funding in light of the fires that have afflicted the state in recent years, including blazes like the Tubbs, Glass and Atlas fires that burned portions of Napa County.
“If there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s the value of prepositioning firefighters and rapid deployment at critical times,” Dodd said. “Already we have made progress, and this investment builds on that success.”
Gavin finally using my tax dollars in a way I approve.
+1
“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 media release announcing the funding
He should also mentioned that PG&E has started most of the first due to deferred maintenance of their equipment. But I understand he likes the ‘climate change’ thing to make it seem like he’s saving the world.
It’s kind of a combo. I don’t imagine power companies only recently became lax about maintenance.
No money for raking the forests?! Have we learned nothing from the Finns?
We can’t do anything about the climate.
Weather changes, that’s the fact.
Predictions are only a guess.
Prudent forest management could have done more good for not only the forest but the good people of CA.
Past Gov’s have bought into irrational conservationists arguments.
It’s all about who pays whom the most.
That’s how decisions are made in Government.
What are your qualifications for making that statement about climate change?
97% of the scientists surveyed agreed that global temperatures had increased during the past 100 years
84% said they personally believed human-induced warming was occurring
74% agreed that “currently available scientific evidence” substantiated its occurrence.
So what are your bona fides? This isn’t really an intuition issue.
Its all about proactive vs reactive.
I guess you didn’t like my idea any better than Gov Newsom.
“in anticipation of this year’s fire season”
Translation, state still hasn’t cleared out enough dead trees and fuel loads will still be too high because of poor forestry management practices over past decade and a half. An don’t forget all the “environmentalist lawsuits” along with endless bureaucracy and red tape required to remove fuel load.
An what good is being green and “responsible” if smoke from all the fires ups pollution levels to record highs and there’s so much smoke you have to stay inside.
An what does responsible forestry and wild land management look like free of DEM governmental restrains. https://tinyurl.com/mhajxp7b
wow! a rare moment of sanity, must be more to this story. maybe he is giving money to foreign countries to help their fire fighting efforts and then getting kick back like his aunt nancy the cronies in congress.
As always Newsom made sure to get the climate change stuff in. However he didn’t say anything about making sure those new hire firefighters were racially and sexually diverse. No mention of electric helicopters either.
He must be slipping; perhaps he is distracted.