SACRAMENTO – In an effort to help North Coast residents kickoff National Wildfire Preparedness Month, Senate President pro Tempore Mike McGuire (D-North Coast) hosted his annual virtual Wildfire Preparedness and Prevention Town Hall with CAL FIRE Director/Fire Chief Joe Tyler on Wednesday.

During the Town Hall, Senate Leader McGuire and Chief Tyler discussed how communities can best prepare for wildfire season, with summer approaching and temperatures on the rise. The State of California has made record investments during the past several years to hire thousands of additional firefighters, expand the ground and aerial attack firefighting fleets, modernize emergency alert policies, manage changing landscapes through dead and dying tree and vegetation removal, and create new fire breaks surrounding communities.

“As fire season becomes longer and more extreme, we are taking big, bold action to better prevent and respond to wildfires,” Pro Tem McGuire said. “California is on the frontlines of our climate crisis and we are making historic investments to increase our firefighting resources and capabilities in every corner of the state. We have seen our communities devastated by wildfires over the years – we’ve seen lives lost, homes burned to the ground, and beloved communities forever changed. California is committed to ensuring lasting change through new fire prevention projects and that our communities are more equipped and prepared than ever before.”

Over the past eight years, the state has expanded CAL FIRE ranks from 6,700 to 12,000 positions, including positioning a few hundred new CAL FIRE and county firefighters in the North Bay and North Coast, and California will hire an additional 1,000 full-time CAL FIRE firefighters over the next few years. California also has expanded training facilities to bring on new firefighters and formerly incarcerated residents to enter the fire service, and expanded the number of new firefighting planes and helicopters. And just last year, Pro Tem McGuire secured funding for new fire trucks, fire training facilities and equipment in all corners of the North Bay and North Coast.

In recent years, California also has treated more than 545,000 acres of California forest lands to make them more fire safe and resilient, treated 96,500 acres of wildlands with prescribed burns, and invested millions of dollars to deploy wildfire detection cameras to areas most under threat of fire danger, which aids in response to pinpointed incident locations.

“It’s never too early to start preparing for wildfire season in California,” said CAL FIRE Director/Fire Chief Joe Tyler. “By taking steps now to harden homes and create defensible space, Californians can dramatically reduce their risk of fire damage. At CAL FIRE, we are deploying firefighting resources throughout the state to keep families and communities safe this upcoming fire season.”

With more than 25 percent of Californians living in areas considered at risk of very high or extreme fire threat, the need to get fire-ready is more important than ever.

Click here to see tips from CAL FIRE on hardening your home, creating a defensible space and more.

To watch a recording of the town hall click here.

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Mike McGuire is President pro Tempore of the California Senate. He represents the North Coast of California, which stretches from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Oregon border, including Del Norte, Trinity, Humboldt, Lake, Mendocino, Sonoma, and Marin counties. Website of Senate Leader McGuire: https://sd02.senate.ca.gov/