SECTION 1.

 This act shall be known, and may be cited, as the Fixing the Firefighter Shortage Act of 2022.

SEC. 2.

 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a) California is facing unprecedented, destructive wildfires, with 14 of the largest 20 wildfires in California history having occurred just in the last decade. Megafires are threatening the way of life for millions of Californians and destroying tens of thousands of homes and businesses.

(b) The 2020 fire season saw over 4,000,000 acres of California destroyed by wildfire, more than double any other year in recorded fire history. Megafires are becoming customary in California and it is going to take a multifaceted approach to attack these types of fires both while they are occurring and before they ignite.

(c) The state has suffered over $30 billion in insured losses in just the 2017, 2018, and 2020 fire seasons.

(d) Wildfires have severely threatened or impacted our air quality. Who would have ever thought just 10 years ago that schools would be canceled or students would be forced indoors for weeks on end due to smoke days each and every year? California’s destructive wildfires are unprecedented and have severely threatened or impacted critical watersheds, drinking water supplies, and wildlife. Many communities are at risk. Fixing the firefighter shortage will help make sure we can fight these wildfires and protect our environment.

(e) While the State of California faces this new normal of wildfires, at the same time, the state is facing a major shortage of firefighters. This severe shortage is putting the health and safety of our firefighters at risk and creating additional danger for many California communities.

(f) Due to staff shortages, firefighters are working long overtime hours and many times up to 40 days in a row without a single day off. In the past two years, California has spent more on overtime than ever before in the history of the state. Hiring new firefighters will save money for taxpayers because the state will no longer need to spend excessive amounts on overtime and outside support.

(g) Over the last four years, more than 54,000 calls have been made by firefighters to state mental health hotlines.

(h) The National Fire Protection Association’s Standard for the Organization and Deployment of Fire Suppression Operations calls for at least four firefighters per structural fire engine and for on-duty wildland firefighter personnel sufficient to perform the necessary firefighting operations given the expected wildland firefighting conditions.

(i) The 2010 California Wildfire Staffing Study produced at San Diego State University showed that lower levels of wildland firefighting staffing results in higher physical stress and significantly lower efficiencies for initial attack effectiveness. The most dramatic gains in efficiency, as much as 50 percent, and decreases in stress occurred when firefighters firefighter crews were increased from two to three firefighters.

(j) The United States Forest Service has over three people on its engines and most Local or Municipal Departments local or municipal departments have three people on their engines, but the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) only has 2.7 firefighters per engine. CalFire only achieves three people per engine when forced overtime is implemented.

(k) Through various interagency master cooperative agreements, CalFire has historically operated 208 Type 1 hand crews, including 192 fire crews through cooperative agreements with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the Division of Juvenile Justice, 12 crews through a partnership with the California Conservation Corps, and an additional four crews that are part of a training program at the Ventura Training Center.

(l) Over the last decade, the CalFire Conservation Camp program has experienced a decline in the number of inmates available to fully staff all its inmate fire crews. The state inmate fire camp program has shrunk from 4,200 inmates serving in fire crews a decade ago to 1,426 in 2021. This has resulted in the operation of fewer crews to support CalFire’s fire protection operations and complete hazardous fuel reduction projects.

(m) Fire crews are one of the most versatile and specialized tools CalFire uses for fire suppression. Fire crews are teams of individuals that, when assigned to wildland fires, are used primarily to construct fire lines by removing vegetation from the path of an advancing wildfire. Fire crews work in conjunction with other resources to stop a fire from spreading by clearing vegetation away from an oncoming wildfire. Without these constructed fire lines, fires grow larger.

(n) Fire crews are also used after a fire is contained to work through the impacted area and extinguish any hotspots that could cross the fire lines and start another fire in unburned vegetation. This function, commonly referred to as “mop-up,” is critical to prevent fire from jumping the perimeter of a contained fire.

(o) The Governor and Legislature invested in an additional 16 CalFire fuel crews and 14 California Conservation Corps crews in the 2021–22 budget, but even with those crews, CalFire is down dozens of crews since their highest levels before the advent of these megafires.

(p) Hiring an additional 1,124 firefighters will help protect our firefighters and help make California more fire safe. Most immediately, CalFire needs 356 new, full-time firefighters to get to full staffing on its fire engines, plus 16 additional hand crews of 48 firefighters each to provide on-the-ground support during fire season, to proactively move on defensible space and fire prevention projects and to protect vulnerable communities. That will add a total of 1,124 additional firefighters.

(q) In addition to hiring an additional 1,124 firefighters, providing ongoing funding for six fuel crews beginning in the 2022–23 fiscal year and 12 additional fuel crews beginning in the 2023–24 fiscal year for the Counties of Kern, Los Angeles, Marin, Orange, Santa Barbara, and Ventura, California’s six contract counties, to provide fire response and perform fuel reduction and fire prevention project work would allow each of those counties to receive funding for one additional fuel crew beginning in the 2022–23 fiscal year and two additional fuel crews beginning in the 2023–24 fiscal year.

(r) Mandating CalFire conduct a long-term staffing plan study will ensure the agency can meet the staffing and infrastructure needs in this new reality we all live in.