California Fire Facts

LIE – California Cut Firefighting Budgets

  • FACT: The number of CalFIRE personnel has nearly doubled since 2019 (from 5,829 to 10,741)
  • FACT: CalFIRE’s budget has nearly doubled since 2019 ($2 Billion to $3.8 Billion)

LIE – These Wildfires are Caused by California’s Mismanagement of Forest Lands 

  • FACT: The budget for managing the forest (AKA “raking the forest”) is now TEN TIMES larger than it was when the Governor Newsom took office. It was a $200 million annual budget in 2018. The state has now invested $2 billion, in addition to the $200 million annually.
  • FACT: California dramatically ramped up state work to increase wildland and forest resilience, as well as adding unprecedented resources to support wildfire response. California officials treated more than 700,000 acres of land for wildfire resilience in 2023, and prescribed fires more than doubled between 2021 and 2023.

LIE – Governor Newsom is working with developers to change zoning in burned areas to allow “mass apartments” 

LIE – California’s smelt fish policy led to the Southern California wildfires 

  • This is an outlandish connection to make. The policy is not about water availability in Southern California.
  • Broadly, there is no water shortage in Southern California right now, despite Trump’s claims that he would open some imaginary spigot.
    • Orange County Water District, which supplies groundwater to the north half of the county, has enough supply to carry its 2.5 million customers through the worst of any potential droughts for 3 to 5 years.
    • The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California also has an abundance, with a record 3.8 million acre-feet of water in storage. That’s enough water to supply 40 million people for a year.

LIE – California Ran Out of Water and Reservoirs Are Empty

Facts About Water Availability

  • FACT: Water reservoirs in Southern California are at record levels. There is no shortage of water in Southern California.
  • FACT: Wildland firefighters don’t use hydrants — they use water tenders. And that is what has been used to ensure continued water access. Three million gallons of water were stored in three large tanks for fire hydrants in the area before the Palisades fire, but the supply was exhausted because of the extraordinary nature of this hurricane-force firestorm. 
  • FACT: The Governor has called for an independent investigation into the loss of water pressure to local fire hydrants and the reported unavailability of water supplies from the Santa Ynez Reservoir. While urban water systems are built for structure fires and fire suppression, not hurricane-force firestorms, it is important to understand what happened so we can be better prepared in the future.
  • FACT: There is no water shortage in Southern California right now, despite Trump’s claims that he would open some imaginary spigot.
  • Orange County Water District, which supplies groundwater to the north half of the county, has enough supply to carry its 2.5 million customers through the worst of any potential droughts for3 to 5 years.
  • The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California — which serves 19 million people mostly with imported water — also has an abundance, “with a record 3.8 million acre-feet of water in storage,” (1 million acres of land with water that is 3.8 feet deep) according to Interim General Manager Deven Upadhyay, who issued a statement last week. That’s enough water to supply 40 million people for a year.
  • FACT: Reservoirs are full and water is available.

LIE: 60 fire trucks from the state of Oregon are being held up in Sacramento to for “emissions testing”

  • FACT: out-of-state fire trucks take part in. 15 minute safety & equipment inspection to ensure no issues with the vehicle. At the time of the original post, the Oregon firefighting teams were already in the Los Angeles area battling the blazes.

California is using every available resource to fight the unprecedented wildfires impacting Southern California. 

  • 10,170 emergency personnel deployed
    • 3,780 CalFire
    • 2638 OES
    • 1445 Caltrans
    • 871 CDCR
    • 836 CHP
    • 855+ Guard (400 MP in LA County now)
  • 1,059+ Fire Engines
  • 143 water tenders (tanker trucks)
  • 116 Dozers
  • 52 Helicopters
  • 9 Air Tankers

Latest Containment Update (Sat. January 11th at 8:52am PT)

Please visit CA.Gov/LAFires if you are looking for resources and real-time information on the fires happening right now.