State Senators Announce Legislation to Bolster Cal Fire Pay, Fire Prevention Efforts

How many California residents are aware that CalFire’s fire fighters are not all full time employees? A large chunk are laid off 3-months each year and have to go on unemployment.

That is about to change according to Senate President pro Tempore Mike McGuire (D-North Coast), who was joined at a press conference Tuesday morning by Cal Fire Firefighters, leaders of the Cal Fire Firefighters, Local 2881, and a bipartisan coalition of State Senators to unveil a new plan – The Fight for Firefighters Act –  to bolster California’s firefighting and fire prevention efforts.

Senate Pro Tem McGuire announced a bill to increase the number of firefighters employed in the state.

The Fight for Firefighters Act proposes a desperately-needed modern day staffing plan, at the cost of $175-185 million per year ongoing, Pro Tem McGuire said. That’s just for starters. We can expect a bill to phase out all part-time CalFire fire fighters and make them operational all year.

However, remember that about two weeks ago the California Legislature passed two bills to provide a total of $3 billion to help Los Angeles begin recovery and cleanup from the devastating wildfires. Assembly Republican leader James Gallagher introduced an amendment to increase the amount of funding by $1 billion, but Democrats killed his amendment.

The promise by the governor to treat 1 million acres a year has not happened, Gallagher warned, noting that ongoing fuel reduction and creating fire breaks must be continued.

He noted that the state spent $5 billion on homeless programs last year.

Other plans in today’s press conference include making vegetation management operational all year – creating fire breaks, removal of dead trees, and creating defensive space. And making all Helitack copters and bases fully operational all year as well.

“More aggressive fires, and an unrelenting year-round wildfire season, demands more aggressive responses,” said Pro Tem McGuire. “Wildfires don’t take three months off. So the elite CalFire firefighting force that is our first and last defense in protecting lives and homes across the state should be year-round too. This investment will make communities more wildfire safe and greatly improve fire and emergency response in every corner of California.”

This is just astounding. Lawmakers talked about all of the amazing work they have done for 10 years boosting CalFire salaries, boosting their numbers, but they did not end the part time employment, nor were Cal Fire engines or helitack copters fully operational all year.

Evan after the 2018 Camp fire, which is the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history, the governor and lawmakers didn’t think to change the way California staffs, prepares equipment and manages wildfires?

“Ask any firefighter: Fires have changed. Fire season has changed,” said Tim Edwards, President of CalFire Local 2881. “What hasn’t changed is the commitment and bravery of our firefighters. When firefighters are on the job, that’s all they’re focused on. If it were up to them they wouldn’t stop. But pushing our firefighters past the breaking point doesn’t do them, their families, or our communities any good. Fires don’t respect calendars. We need to respect and protect our firefighters by making sure we have enough to do the job safely year round.”

Two Republican Senators participated in the large press conference: Senate Republican Leader Brian Jones and Senator Kelly Seyarto (R-Murrieta). Seyarto is a retired Fire Chief from Los Angeles.

However, only Senate Republican Leader Brian Jones spoke.

“I’m proud of the Senate’s bipartisan approach to addressing issues within our state’s wildfire management, response and recovery apparatus,” said Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones (R-San Diego) who, along with Senate Pro Tempore Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg), held a press conference Tuesday announcing the introduction of a bill to increase the number of firefighters employed in the state. “There is neither room nor time to play politics with this emergent situation. While this bill represents a good start, Republicans remain committed to tackling this issue from every angle.”

Most of the speakers attributed the increase in wildfires to “climate change” – a convenient catch-all, of which there is no accountability for politicians, but there is great wealth redistribution. In California, businesses are charged a carbon tax in the form of cap and trade. It’s a shakedown. (The “cap” is the state-imposed limit on businesses that emit greenhouse gasses, and the “trade” is the sale of carbon credits to other businesses).

Remember there is ‘NO Climate Crisis’ Says a Coalition of 1,600 Actual Scientists that we reported last year.

As the Globe recently reported, 2005-2014, 10 years of fires, there were 80,136 fires in California.

2015 – 2024, the next 10 years of fires, there were 82,793 fires.

The Globe also reported on the 20 largest wildfires according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection as of October 2, 2024, and interestingly, two of the top 20 were a very long time ago – 1889, and 1932.

It is not difficult to conclude that California wildfires are historical. Modern fires appear more destructive as Californians have developed residential living into more rural areas. It is also evident that most of the recent fires are man-made – arson, utility related, and homeless caused fires.

As the Globe has reported for many years, traditional forest management involved thinning the forests when it became too difficult to walk through. Today, only privately managed forests are maintained through the traditional forest management practices: thinning, cutting, clearing, prescribed burns, and the disposal of the resulting woody waste. And notably, privately managed lands are not on fire.

Senate Republicans just introduced a list of bills Tuesday to address water storage and transport, community hardening, rebuilding efforts under the California Environmental Quality Act, environmental restrictions in the wake of fire events, and fire-related crime.

Wildfire bills introduced by Senate Republicans thus far in 2025 include:

Senate Bill 223 (Alvarado-Gil): Requires the state to build and maintain a statewide integrated wildfire smoke and health data platform that would integrate wildfire smoke and health data from multiple databases.

Senate Bill 268 (Choi): Excludes from taxable income, settlement payments made in connection with any declared state of emergency made by the Governor.

Senate Bill 269 (Choi): Provides a tax credit to homeowners who perform qualified home hardening and/or vegetation management on their properties.\

Senate Bill 87 (Seyarto): Extends the sales tax exemption on fundraising activities for all-volunteer fire departments.

Senate Bill 90 (Seyarto): Allows the use of Prop 4 funding to support prepositioned mobile rigid water storage and mobile rigid dip tanks as eligible activities for improving public safety. By strategically positioning these tanks in high-risk wildfire areas, California firefighters can reduce helicopter response times and enhance the effectiveness of fire engines and helicopters while making critical improvements to public evacuation routes on specified lands.

Senate Bill 264 (Valladares): Allows prosecutors to charge those who impersonate a police officer or firefighter during a state of emergency, with a felony.

Senate Bill 265 (Valladares): Classifies burglary committed during a state of emergency – such as during or after a wildfire – as a felony offense.

Senate Bill 252 (Valladares): Exempts power line infrastructure from the CEQA requirements for undergrounding lines, allowing for expedited completion on projects to move power lines underground.

But don’t hold your breath… California Senate Republicans issued a stunning report on 20+ years of proposed fire fighting legislation that was killed by Democrats – Click HERE to read it.

“With the unprecedented devastation in Los Angeles this month and eight out of ten of the most destructive wildfires in California history hitting the state over the past five years, this legislation will ensure that Cal Fire maintains a year-round, permanent firefighting force dedicated to protecting communities across the Golden State,” Pro Tem McGuire’s announcement of today’s press conference said.

It is still astonishing that CalFire employees were not all full time, nor was their equipment. Democrats can pat themselves on the backs for their new legislation to improve CalFire, but first they need to rescind their destructive environmental regulations and restrictions, preventing CalFire and other fire departments from practicing traditional forest management and fuel reduction.

Here is the press conference: