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LA City Council members unanimously approved emergency legislation on Friday that allows the Los Angeles Fire Department to temporarily hire up to 1,250 firefighters so it can put out massive wildfires that are ravaging California’s most populous city.
The measure, known as the Community Emergency Response Team Act, allows the city to hire firefighters for a maximum of two years to help battle the wildfire that is raging in Southern California due to a combination of dry and windy weather.
The legislation is only temporary. The hiring of 1,250 volunteers will allow the city to hire and train another 1,250 when the emergency conditions have eased, according to Assistant Fire Chief Jeff McNeil.
Under the emergency program, each firefighter will get $12,050 a year, which includes health and life insurance, $8,500 for uniforms and equipment, as well as $6,250 for each of the first 26 weeks in training.
The city will use the temporary firefighters until the mandatory hiring of additional firefighters, which could be as soon as June.
“I just want to encourage everyone that they are not alone,” said Los Angeles City Councilor Paul Krekorian, who co-authored the legislation that he said was necessary to keep neighborhoods safe. “This is an emergency situation.”
The Los Angeles Fire Department has requested 1,600 permanent firefighters to join its response to the fires in the city, and more than 5,000 members of the Fire Department have signed up, according to department spokeswoman Sara Reardon.
In a statement released earlier this week by the fire department, Reardon said that a mandatory program would help keep the city functioning while the fires begin to burn down.
“We are asking everyone to be a part of the solution,” she said.
The response measures came as the City Council passed emergency legislation that would give the fire department the power to hire up to 1,250 more temporary firefighters so it is able to put out the fires in Southern California.
The measure is only a temporary solution as it will take months for the state to approve the city’s request to hire permanent firefighters for the response. But it’s expected to help the city get through the current emergency.
The Los Angeles
