Coronavirus leaves California shorthanded during fire season

Manpower shortage blamed on quarantines and contaminations

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) - California Governor Gavin Newsom announced, during a press briefing Thursday, the state is hiring in the face of both a pandemic and a ferocious fire season.

The Governor said crews have already fought more than 4,000 wildfires so far this season. That's up from around 2,600 at this time last year. Unfortunately, as the number of fires went up, the number of firefighters went down.

Watch Gov. Newsom's press briefing here

Newsom said coronavirus has severely depleted the state's firefighting corps. Particularly diminished are crews from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).

"One of the things that has occurred with COVID is that we've now been impacted in terms of our Conservation Corps and our partnership with CDCR in terms of numbers of hand crews that we have available, because of quarantine, because they've been exposed or have tested positive." said Newsom.

The governor said inmate crews play one of the hardest, most essential roles in battling a blaze.

"These are really critical workers doing that really hard grunt work, just doing the raking, and getting down in the dirt, and preparing the line for the firefighters." he said.

Newsom said of the 192 CDCR Conservation Crews normally available during fire season, only 94 can answer the call this year.

The virus has also derailed California's plans to hire 600 full-time professional firefighters. Gov. Newsom said the state can now only afford 172. However, he says he'll authorize Cal Fire to hire more than 850 seasonal firefighters to help fill the gap.

"We're trying to lean in and do our best to be vigilant and prepared." said Newsom.