Cal Fire Fumbles Key Responsibilities to Prevent Catastrophic Wildfires Despite Historic Budget

database — since last summer. But it hasn't committed to a release date. At a meeting of the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force last month, director Patrick Wright said it would offer"an initial flavor" of the dashboard in July.

In an interview, senior Cal Fire officials told The California Newsroom that the governor's Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force is taking the lead on crafting this definition. The task force is made up of representatives from the state and federal governments, tribal leaders and other groups that do forest health projects.

Usually"burn bosses" — those qualified to plan and lead controlled burns — need to work for many years for fire suppression agencies, such as Cal Fire or the U.S. Forest Service, to get enough experience for certification. But being so busy fighting fires for much of the year, they struggle to get many burns done.

Harling wasn't the only one to write in frustration to the division. In response to a December 2021 email from another trainee, Battalion Chief Mark Bisbee within Cal Fire's State Fire Training division acknowledged the program's problems. He also acknowledged the push from lawmakers to take a new direction:"Whether Cal Fire is ready or not, the legislation is saying this is what we need to do."

For over a decade, the Legislature has mandated that the department file an annual report detailing its fire prevention activities for the previous year, and its plans for improving prevention efforts moving forward. The report is an inventory of the department's accomplishments, and lawmakers rely on it to understand the state's progress on protecting vulnerable communities.

While some legislation lays out clear mandates for Cal Fire, other bills establish goals for the department to meet. For example, a law passed in 2019 set a goal for Cal Fire to inspect homes within its responsibility area once every three years. These inspections are designed to educate homeowners about dangers with vegetation near the home and structural vulnerabilities to wildfire.

"We will be working to not only increase those [inspection] numbers, but to make sure that those numbers are being reported to the public to see exactly where that work is being done," he said.

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