The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will reimburse California for costs related to hiring more firefighters and containing the raging wildfires that have ravaged Southern California.
News of the Fire Management Assistance Grants trickled in on Tuesday, and by the evening the White House released a statement from President Biden confirming the move. FEMA confirmed the measures on Wednesday in an announcement with some details about the subsidies.
The funding will provide federal reimbursements for up to 75% of the “eligible firefighting costs” the state incurs, as California is trying to strengthen its firefighting force and extinguish the forest fires that have killed at least two people and driven thousands from their homes. Eligible costs include expenses for field camps, equipment, materials, supplies, and mobilization or demobilization efforts attributed to fighting the fires.
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FEMA’s logo next to an image of a California firefighter battling the raging wildfire hitting the southern part of the state. (AP/Getty)
“My administration will do everything we can to support the response,” Biden said Tuesday, announcing news of the grant. “I am regularly briefed on the wildfires in west Los Angeles. My team and I are in contact with state and local officials, and I have offered whatever federal assistance is needed to help suppress the terrible fire in the Pacific Palisades. “
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A shortage of firefighters in California has been an ongoing problem in California for several years. Prior to news of the FEMA grant, the Los Angeles Fire Department was forced to ask all off-duty firefighters in the area to volunteer to help. The US Forest Service this summer, California ramped up staffing levels for the first time in five years, but the total number of federal wildland firefighters is still sharply reduced from before, even as the state has seen an increase in the number and severity of fires in recent years forest fires. according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Firefighters in California are battling the blaze that started Tuesday morning and lasted Wednesday with little sign it will be contained once thousands of people evacuate.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Forest Service announced an end to prescribed burning to control wildfires in October due to staffing shortages.
California’s decision to end prescribed burns came after Biden’s opposition to a bipartisan bill aimed at streamlining the implementation process. forest management projects, such as prescribed burns, in California. In a September statement explaining opposition to the bill, the Biden administration said certain provisions served to undermine the bill crucial environmental protection.
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Forest Service firefighters conduct a prescribed burn on the grounds of the High Desert Museum, near Bend, Oregon. The prescribed burning is part of a massive effort in the West’s wildlands to prepare for a fire season that follows the worst on record.
The FEMA grants, aimed at strengthening the state’s firefighting force amid the raging wildfires, were initiated at the request of the state of California. FEMA indicated that at the time of the requests, the wildfires had burned more than 700 acres of private and public lands around the Pacific Palisades, San Fernando Valley and Santa Calrita Valley.
FEMA more than added to that 45,000 homes in the area were threatened by the ongoing fire.
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An agency spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the regional office is in constant contact with local authorities in California, and that the agency has also deployed a FEMA liaison officer to the area to help monitor the developing situation. The spokesperson added that the agency is urging residents to listen to local officials and has provided them with a phone number to text if people need safe shelter.
