Marin County, CA – As California’s fire season lengthens and the frequency of catastrophic wildland fires increases, Senator Mike McGuire and Assemblymember Marc Levine have continued to fight day and night to secure additional funding to boost resources to protect our communities. 

This week, as part of the legislature’s final budget deal, Senator McGuire and Assemblymember Levine helped secure an additional $14 million for the six counties in California that contract with CalFire to provide services for “State Responsibility Areas,” including the County of Marin. This critical funding will allow Marin County Fire, along with the other contract counties, to hire and assemble a new fire prevention crew. In Marin County specifically, the crew would include 14 fire professionals including 12 firefighters and two supervisory positions for the region. 

“Wildfires are one of the biggest threats that Northern California communities face and the livelihoods of countless residents are at risk,” Senator Mike McGuire said. “Marin County needs additional boots on the ground as quickly as possible. This investment will not only help with desperately needed wildfire fuel reduction work all throughout Marin, it will also provide additional firefighting resources to protect communities. We’ve been grateful to work hand-in-hand with Assemblymember Levine, Chief Weber and the Marin County Board of Supervisors to make this critical investment a reality.”

“California is living the nightmare scenario of another devastating year of wildfires in which the threat of fires to our families and property is constant,” said Assemblymember Marc Levine. “This risk is present in all the decisions we make as legislators and as residents ourselves, and is why we have advocated for wildfire prevention funds in this year’s budget. This critical investment ensures we have the necessary resources for increased fuel reduction to prevent wildfires in our community and high risk areas across California. I am grateful to have Senator McGuire as a partner in this effort.”

This week’s budget agreement is heading into the final stages and will be in front of the Legislature this week for formal adoption. If the Legislature adopts this current budget, this will be the second investment in expanding the State’s historic investment in wildfire prevention and response. The Legislature and the Governor allocated $536 million in wildfire prevention and response in the month of May. This latest wildfire budget bill is an additional $988 million bringing the total investment in this year alone to $1.5 billion.

Marin County Fire will receive $2,383,000 to hire the new fire prevention crew.

“California is facing catastrophic challenges with wildfire. We desperately need additional resources to combat this growing threat here at home in Marin. We’ve been working hand-in-hand with Senator McGuire and Assemblymember Levine to secure this funding, which will allow us to hire a new wildfire prevention hand crew to serve the region. This wouldn’t have happened without Senator McGuire and Assemblymember Levine. These hardworking men and women will perform preventive measures and work fire suppression directly on the fire lines,” said Marin County Fire Chief Jason Weber. 

With the funding from the state coming in the next month, Chief Weber expects to extend the crew season for fuel reduction and to have an additional crew up and running by the new year.

###