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SFGATE: California scrambles for more firefighters amid pandemic

California scrambles for more firefighters amid pandemic
Published on July 10, 2020 at 05:48AM by By DON THOMPSON and DAISY NGUYEN, Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — As California enters wildfire season, the state is scrambling to find sufficient firefighters amid the coronavirus outbreak that has depleted the ranks of inmates who usually handle some of the toughest duties and caused a budget deficit that derailed plans to hire 600 new state firefighters and support personnel.

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday said the state would instead add 172 professional firefighters and he'll use his emergency authority to beef up seasonal crews as the state enters another hot, dry summer when fires often rage out of control.

The threat from coronavirus already sidelined some of the firefighting hand crews that do what Newsom called “the really hard grunt work.” They typically include 15-17 inmates or civilian California Conservation Corps members who use hand tools and chainsaws to cut and scrape road-like clearings through trees and brush to stem the spread of wildfires.

Just 94 of the state's 192 authorized inmate crews are available, “substantially down from where we’ve been in the past,” Newsom said, after the state was forced to temporarily quarantine 12 inmate firefighter camps last month. The state has also released thousands of inmates to create space during the pandemic and before that, as part of a plan to reduce incarceration for lower-level offenses.

In response, Newsom announced Thursday he will use $72.4 million to hire 858 additional seasonal firefighters and field six more California Conservation Corps crews through October. That's sharply down from his pre-pandemic plan to spend $200 million to hire about 500 professional firefighters and 100 support staff. The budget he signed last week includes funding for the 172 permanent positions.

Tim Edwards, president of the union representing state firefighters, said even the 600 positions would...

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