Bills Propose “New Ways” to Improve California’s Wildfire Response 

Antonio‌ ‌Ray‌ ‌Harvey‌ ‌|‌ ‌California‌ ‌Black‌ ‌Media‌

Sen. Kelly Seyarto (R-Murrieta) was a firefighter in Southern California for 35 years before he decided to run for political office. 

A former mayor of Murietta, Seyarto was elected a State Assemblymember in 2020 representing the 67th District. In 2022, he won the Senate race for the 32nd District.

As a firefighter, Seyarto protected homes and saved lives in neighborhoods around Altadena, Pasadena, the Pacific Palisades, and other areas in Los Angeles County. He retired from the Los Angeles County Fire Department in 2015 at the rank of Battalion Chief.

Seyarto says when he found out about the fires in Los Angeles County, including Altadena – one of state’s oldest and most affluent middle-class Black neighborhoods razed during the Eaton firestorm – he felt a particular closeness to the damage and devastation. 

“I am extremely familiar with Altadena. I couldn’t believe how far the fires went down into the neighborhoods,” Seyarto told California Black Media (CBM), while sitting in his State Capitol Swing Space Annex’s office. “When I saw Bank of America burn down, I was like, ‘how did fire get down there? That’s way down on Lake Avenue.’”

Seyarto continued, “When you have winds like that and all those embers floating around it’s about the preparations we need to do ahead of time. When that does happen, we have people in position to get these helicopters up with quick turnarounds to douse these fires.”

Seyarto started his career as a firefighter-paramedic with the Inglewood Fire Department. Now, as a lawmaker and public safety advocate, Seyarto has introduced bills to address wildfire response and preparation. 

He said he actually authored them in October, two months before the fires happened. 

The first legislation is Senate Bill (SB) 90, which will utilize Prop 4 (Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparedness, and Clean Air Bond Act of 2024) funding to support “prepositioned mobile rigid water storage” and mobile rigid dip tanks. 

He said the bill is necessary to aid firefighting air equipment in vulnerable places without natural water sources such as lakes or rivers. Currently helicopters depend on systems like “heli-hydrants,” but they present challenges, Seyarto said. 

He explained that when helicopters access an area with a “Helispot” to obtain a water source, they have to be hooked up to a hydrant, filled up, disconnected, and then fly off to where the fire is active. “This process takes about 20 minutes,” Seyarto said. 

“There’s now new ways of doing things,” he said. “Some water districts, like Yorba Linda, have created open spaces where the helicopter can come down, drop their snorkel, suck up the water, and be gone. What (SB 90) does is allow for rigid mobile tanks to be established in fire-affected where helicopters can refill water in five minutes. With this, we can enhance our aerial of operations.” 

On average, heli-hydrants cost $300,000 per unit, Seyarto said. The mobile water tanks range in affordable prices from $65,000 to $95,000 and can be instantly deployed near fire zones. 

Currently, Los Angeles County, Orange County, Chino Valley, and San Bernardino firefighting agencies source water out of a “triangle” in L.A. County, Seyarto said. 

The proposed tanks would make all the agencies more “flexible” and “effective in doing their jobs,” he said.

Some areas across the state are “blessed with natural lakes” where firefighting helicopters can source water. However, if the water sources are shallow “you are sucking up mud,” Seyarto stated. Also, the prepositioned tanks won’t require approval from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

“(The tanks) do not require environmental clearance, they are temporary, and they can be moved from one location to another,” Seyarto said.

Since the January firestorms have destroyed more than a $100 billion in property and displaced more than $100,000 people, policymakers have pushed various bills aimed at preventing and controlling wildfires. 

Seyarto is also the author of SB 87, a bill that would provide a sales tax exemption for all-volunteer fire departments (AVFDs) income from fundraising activities. It will extend the current law, which is due to sunset on Jan. 1, 2026.

Many areas in the state rely on AVFDs because they cannot afford to pay full-time fighters, leaving residents no choice but to protect their properties — as well as their neighbors.

SB 87 also proposes maintaining the qualifying requirement that departments’ gross receipts must not exceed $100,000 in the preceding two calendar years.

“They are the first responders,” Seyarto said. “If they don’t have the right equipment on the rig or medical stuff — lot of that stuff they have to pay for. That’s why they have fundraisers.”

On March 11, Assemblymember Issac Bryan (D-Ladera Heights), Vice Chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus, held a news conference to discuss his legislation, Assembly Bill (AB) 247 

The bill proposes higher pay for incarcerated firefighters. 

Members of an advocacy group, All of Us or None, were at the State Capitol to support the measure. 

AB 247 would require that incarcerated individual hand crew members, in addition to receiving credits, be paid an hourly wage equal to $19 while assigned to an active fire incident. The bill would require that the wage rate be updated annually.

On March 11, with a bipartisan 8-0 vote, the Assembly Committee on Appropriations voted to advance AB 247. 

“Los Angeles was burning. Los Angeles might still be burning if it wasn’t for the hundreds of incarcerated hand crews that went to work,” said Bryan. “They didn’t politicize this crisis. They didn’t point blame. They looked to save lives. They looked to save homes.”