Rep. LaMalfa seeks greater wildfire aid for California

U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) said lack of planning, personnel, and equipment has led to extreme California wildfire damage and has invited federal officials to the state to aid with solutions.

LaMalfa said he has extended an invitation to Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, and Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen as a means of lending insight into a circumstance in which lightning strikes and a heatwave have sparked over 600 fires statewide.

“Firefighters have been heroic in their efforts to protect California from disaster, but they need immediate help,” LaMalfa said. “Despite being aware that this fire season would be active, our firefighting personnel and equipment were too quickly drained. A severe lack of resources has even left several fires with limited staffing for days. I invited Vice President Pence, Agriculture Secretary Perdue, and Forest Service Chief Christiansen to visit California and help find short and long-term solutions to ensure that fires of this number and magnitude do not continue to burn catastrophically year after year.”

LaMalfa said the nation must provide firefighters support to continue extinguishing fires and protecting homes, public lands, and private timberlands from more disaster.

Authorities said LaMalfa supported Gov. Gavin Newsom’s request for a disaster declaration for several northern California counties and co-introduced the Emergency Wildfire and Public Safety Act with Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) – which streamlines forest management projects in the West, trains a new generation of forestry professionals and firefighters, clears California’s 150 million dead and dying trees, incentivizes biomass collection, expedites permitting for the installation of wildfire detection equipment and expands the use of satellite data to assist wildfire response.