A new push for more full-time firefighters

After suffering a disappointing veto last year, supporters of an effort to transition 3000 seasonal firefighters into an all-year-position are back, hoping that this year will be different.

Both legislative chambers overwhelmingly endorsed Assembly Bill 2538, which would have required the Department of Human Resources, the State Personnel Board and any other relevant state agencies to ensure Cal Fire the right to employ seasonal firefighters for longer than nine months in a consecutive 12-month period.

The bill’s supporters said it would have aided with emergency fire situations and mitigated firefighter shortages, but Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed the bill, saying it was unconstitutional. Newsom argued the proposal clashed with Article VII, Section 5 of the California Constitution, which states that no person may serve in one or more positions under a temporary appointment for longer than nine months in a consecutive 12-month period.

Senate President pro Tem Mike McGuire (D-Geyserville) and a bipartisan group of California state senators announced last month they will give it another try, introducing Senate Bill SB 581, which would ensure that all Cal Fire engines, helitack bases, and vegetation management crews would be fully operational 365 days per year, along with phasing out seasonal firefighters in lieu of a full staff all year-round.

SB 581 press conference. Photo by Capitol Weekly.

President Tim Edwards, president of the Cal Fire Local 2881 union, says the proposal would give firefighters the tools and the resources it needs to have a chance to make a real difference, because Edwards believes the winter rainy months are not a deterrent to fire conditions anymore.

“When you lose your seasonal firefighters and the 200 engines that are not available to respond to these emergencies, then you just took the cards away from us and put it in the favor of the disaster that’s going to happen,” he says.

It is not just about fighting fires. Cal Fire responds to every major disaster in California, including mudslides and earthquakes. Edwards says he feels the pressure of residents who need fire crews to cut fuel breaks around their communities during the off season.

“How do they expect it to be done when the firefighters that could be cutting them are laid off?”

Seasonal firefighter Ricardo Rodriguez, who was hired in 2021 to work for the Cal Fire Mendocino Unit [Chamberlain Creek Fire], says he regularly responds to a variety of all-risk emergencies, including natural and man-caused disasters.

In 2024 Rodriguez and his crew responded to the Park Fire, which burned over 400,000 acres.

“A lot of times, what they need for a big fire like that is us, manpower,” Rodriguez says.

That was definitely the case in January when the Palisades Fire started. It eventually burned nearly 24,000 acres, took the lives of 27 and cost an estimated $35 to $45 billion in property loss.

Rodriguez was still in his offseason during the start of the blaze, and could only watch the devastation from afar.

“I was sitting at home watching it all play out on the news and feeling helpless knowing my captains were down there, and I was thinking in my head, I’m worried for them, because they don’t have their group of 16 firefighters right now,” Rodriguez says.

He says Cal Fire cannot expect to always rely on their permanent firefighters and outside fire agencies to accommodate the shortfall of seasonal firefighters because it’s having all boots on the ground that matter most.

“We are the ones removing the fuels and the vegetation by hand with chainsaws and pickaxes, scraping the earth down to the bare mineral soil, because dirt does not burn, and so we’ve starved the fire,” he says.

Retired Sacramento fire captain Erica Enslin began her career as a seasonal firefighter for a small fire department in Marin County in the 90’s. Enslin says they used to get laid off at the end of the season and then rehired for the summer months. At that time this was a cost saving effort, the theory being that the winter months were so rainy Cal Fire could get by without them.

Enslin says things are different now. She remembers the first time an emergency response strike team was sent down to Southern California to help with the Thomas Fire in 2017, which at the time had been one of the largest wildfires in California State history, burning approximately 281,893 acres and causing over $2.2 billion dollars in damage.

That’s when she realized there were no more seasons.

“I remember we were all talking about how crazy this was, that we were having wildland fires at Christmas,” she says.

Enslin feels many different factors contribute to this cause, including climate change, wildland urban interface (homes and businesses built into wildland areas that increase a zone of wildfire risk) and the inability to have the necessary controlled burns to reduce the amount of material that could fuel a large fire.

Edwards says there have been many efforts to improve how the state combats the growing fire threat to California residences. Transitioning seasonal firefighters to full-time employment to seasonal firefighters would be a significant step forward.

“At some point in time, people have to wake up and understand that this is not going away, it is getting worse,” Edwards says. “Mike Tyson is a lot bigger than me, like these fires, and if I step into the ring unprepared, I’m going to get my ass kicked.”

“At some point in time, people have to wake up and understand that this is not going away, it is getting worse.”

But such a transition comes at a price. Lawmakers estimate the cost to transition around 3,000 seasonal firefighters at approximately $175 million annually out of the State of California’s General Fund.

“Is that taxpayer money? Absolutely. But $175 million compared to trillions of dollars that were lost in 10 years in real estate, businesses, infrastructure and lives – just one life saved alone justifies all that,” Edwards says.

Sen. Jones believes says the expense is also realistic when the costs of paying seasonal firefighters to be unemployed for three months is factored into the equation.

“We are paying them not to work for three months on unemployment, where we could be spending just a little bit more to have them employed all year,” he says.

Rodriguez feels that people also don’t realize how hard it is to call them back in the winter months if there is an emergency situation like the Palisades Fires.

“Laid-off seasonal firefighters have to go through the entire rehiring process first in order to fight those fires, which takes precious time away from their emergency response,” he says.

Many seasonal firefighters also get other jobs while they are laid off, making it difficult to call them back in case of a fire emergency.

“Some think it’s cheaper to lay them off in the winter months and then in an emergency, call them back and leave their winter jobs, but then you’re leaving that winter job understaffed,” Enslin says.

Being unemployed for three months is a struggle for Rodriguez. While some seasonal workers take that time to get a second job or go on a long vacation, the single father of two says his time off is definitely not a vacation. It can also be very difficult to find a second job that will only hire him briefly.

“Once I’m laid off I have a short time until my benefits run out and then I’m living on unemployment, food stamps and Medi Cal,” he says.

The proposal is currently awaiting a hearing in the Senate Labor, Public Employment and Retirement Committee. As is his custom with pending measures, Newsom has not commented on this year’s version of the legislation. Senator Brian Jones (R-San Diego), the bill’s lone Republican co-sponsor, believes it addresses the governor’s constitutional concerns. More important, he says, is that it will save lives.

“When we are able to have more people on these fire lines the entire year, then we are protecting the lives of the citizens and their property,” Jones says.

Ellie Appleby is a Capitol Weekly intern.