One month into California's fiscal year, the state has already spent about one-fourth of its $442.8M annual emergency fund fighting fires.

Those costs are expected to go up due to the extensive ground and air firefighting resources being used.

If the state's fire costs exceed its e-fund budget in fiscal 2018-19, California can tap into its traditional budget reserves that now total about $2B. </s> California Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday called the wildfire situation in the state part of "the new normal." He said California has the money to fight fires today, but cautioned things could get tighter in coming years due to a likely downturn.

More than a dozen major wildfires are burning in the state, including the monster Carr fire in Northern California that has already destroyed more than 1,000 homes and killed six people. Seventeen large fires have burned more than 250,000 acres and thousands of residents still are evacuated.

"So far, this fire activity is a small part of our very large budget but it is a growing part and will continue to grow as we adapt to the changing weather," Brown said during a news conference about wildfires at the State Operations Center in Mather, California.

Through last Friday, California had already spent $115 million on emergency firefighting since the start of the July 1 fiscal year, or about one-fourth of the state's $442.8 million annual so-called e-fund budget. However, if the state's fire costs exceed its e-fund budget in fiscal 2018-19, California can tap into its traditional budget reserves.

"There's money in this year's budget," Brown said, noting that the state is experiencing its ninth year of recovery. "We have a rainy day fund. We're not down to our last dollar at this point."

However, the governor conceded that the state will at some point experience a downturn in the economy that likely will change its fiscal situation. When that happens, he said the state could resort to borrowing if needed. </s> One month into California's fiscal year, the state has already spent about one-fourth of its emergency fund fighting fires across the state. Now with more than a dozen large wildfires raging and firefighting resources stretched thin, crews are on the way from as far as the East Coast., according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire. At least eight deaths have been attributed to the fires, which have burned about almost 240,000 acres, or about 375 square miles up and down the state."We're very active right now across the state with fires," said Cal Fire Deputy Chief Scott McLean. "Vegetation is so dry, especially with the winds that are coming and have been coming."Cal Fire said Monday that hot and dry conditions have contributed to the wildfire risk statewide, including low humidity and high winds in some areas of Northern California. The southern portion of the state has baked in triple-digit temperatures in some inland areas in recent weeks.Adding to the wildfire risk are an estimated 129 million dead trees in California forests due to years of drought and beetle infestation, according to the U.S. Forest Service., according to Cal Fire.The most destructive blaze is the so-called Carr fire in Shasta and Trinity counties, which has destroyed at least 818 homes and killed six people. As of Monday evening, the fire has burned nearly 104,000 acres and was listed as 23 percent contained and with more than 3,600 fire personnel on the lines.The state called in California National Guard troops to assist in firefighting efforts, but McLean said resources are still "tight" with so many major fires burning statewide. By the end of the week, California expects to have crews from more than a dozen other states on the fire lines helping to battle the blazes, with new arrivals coming from Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, Maryland, New Mexico and Oregon., according to H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the California Department of Finance. Those fire costs are through Friday and expected to go up due to extensive ground and air firefighting resources being used.However, if the state's fire costs exceed its e-fund budget in fiscal 2018-19, California can tap into its traditional budget reserves. California's state budget reserves now total about $2 billion.In Northern California, crews were making progress in fighting the Carr fire, which started a week ago. Officials believe the fire was ignited by mechanical failure of a vehicle."The fire perimeter in Redding itself is now contained," said Jonathan Cox, a regional battalion chief with Cal Fire in Northern California. "So now we're just literally trying to secure all of the areas so we can get people home."Authorities on Sunday announced a sixth fatality for the Carr fire, which forced about 38,000 residents to evacuate last week. Shasta Sheriff Tom Bosenko announced Monday afternoon there are 19 reports outstanding of missing person cases.Fire personnel are now focusing on getting in front of the Carr fire on the Trinity County side using bulldozers and hand crews. Cox said the monster fire is now burning in sparsely populated areas; as of Monday temperatures had fallen about 10 degrees from last week's peak and there was little or no wind.About 150 miles to the south, there are two other major wildfires burning in Mendocino and Lake counties. As of Monday afternoon the Ranch fire had burned more than 45,000 acres and the River fire 23,411 acres. Thousands of people were evacuated from mostly rural areas and some small towns in the path of the fires, which remain under investigation. The two blazes are 5 percent contained.The Ferguson fire in Mariposa County, now in its 19th day, has burned more than 57,000 acres and forced the closure of Yosemite National Park. Officials said they plan to reopen Yosemite park to all visitors starting Friday afternoon.There have been two fire personnel fatalities in connection with the Ferguson fire, including a firefighter who died Saturday in the line of duty when he was struck by a tree. As of Monday, the blaze was 30 percent contained and had more than 3,600 fire personnel engaged on the fire. The cause of the blaze is still listed as unknown.Further south, the Cranston fire is burning near Idyllwild in Riverside County. It has charred more than 13,100 acres and is 57 percent contained. There are more than 1,500 crews battling the arson-sparked fire, which has charred brush and timber in the San Jacinto Mountains. </s> Melted metal is seen under a wildfire-damaged car in Lakeport as crews slowed the spread of one of the blazes.

Firefighters watch a back burn during the Mendocino Complex Fire as it threatens the Upper Lake community in Lake County.

SACRAMENTO — California’s firefighters are stretched as thin as they have ever been, state officials said Tuesday, with no indication that the wave of fires scorching the Golden State will ease in the coming months.

It used to be that the fire season picked up at the end of August and ran through October. That changed with the state’s five-year drought, and this year’s outbreak in July has officials worried about firefighter fatigue.

It was an unprecedented month for fires, both in the number of acres burned and the cost of fielding crews to douse the flames.

The state spent $125 million in July fighting wildfires. That was more than one-fourth of what was budgeted for the entire fiscal year, which began July 1 and won’t end until June 30, 2019.

It was also a tragic month for firefighters. Four died while battling blazes, two on the Ferguson Fire near Yosemite National Park and two on the Carr Fire as it threatened Redding.

“Unfortunately, no one is going home,” said Mark Ghilarducci, director of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. “There is no rest. ... We are literally moving firefighters and personnel from one fire to another, and will continue to do so until the threat is mitigated.”

Cliff Allen, president of Cal Fire Local 2881, the union that represents employees with the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said the workload is taking a toll.

“Fatigue is starting to set in,” Allen said.

Nearly 300,000 acres of state and local lands have burned in California since January, 70,000 acres more than at this time last year and close to triple the five-year average for the date. Cal Fire has had to tap agencies in 12 other states to help build the force of 10,500 firefighters who are on the lines fighting the largest fires.

State officials even persuaded Australia and New Zealand to send firefighters. And Ghilarducci said his office is considering asking the Pentagon to deploy ground troops from the Marines or Army who can help clear brush to stop fires from spreading.

“We have fire literally from one end of the state to the other, and we have weather conditions that are making this an even more dynamic situation,” Ghilarducci said. “We have to get resources to the right place at the right time. It’s like a chess board.”

Ghilarducci said that in recent days, state officials redirected fire crews from the Ferguson Fire near Yosemite to the Carr Fire as it threatened Redding and to the Mendocino Complex Fire when it took aim at communities in Lake County.

When those fires are contained, Ghilarducci said, it’s unlikely firefighters will get a break. The way the summer is going, they’ll probably have another fire to put out.

“It’s really all hands on deck,” he said.

And that comes at a cost.

The state is likely to need to dip into reserves for the eighth time in the past decade to cover the cost of putting out wildfires. That’s despite an ever-increasing budget for fighting fires.

Last year, the state budgeted $427 million. The outburst of fires in the North Bay and elsewhere in October, and then in Southern California in December, left the state, local governments and the federal government having to come up with another $470 million to cover costs.

California has budgeted $443 million for this fiscal year that began July 1, and has spent $125 million so far. That’s more than the state spent during the entire 2010-11 fiscal year.

“This is why the governor has been so insistent over the years of having a healthy budget reserve because, as this year may very well show, Mother Nature doesn’t always coordinate with the state budget,” said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the state Department of Finance. “The second thing it speaks to is that it underscores what the governor has talked about in terms of the kind of effect that climate change has had on conditions in California and how they set the state up for these kinds of catastrophic wildfires.”

Edward Struzik, author of the book “Firestorm: How Wildfire Will Shape Our Future,” said rising firefighting costs are going to put pressure on budgets across the U.S. in coming years. The only way to prevent that is to keep people from moving into wildland areas and investing in technology that predicts where fires are likely to happen, he said.

“There is no indication we will get cooler and wetter in the West,” Struzik said. “Every study I’ve seen shows California and most of the American West will get hotter and drier. We have more people working and living in these forest areas, and that is increasing the likelihood of fires. I don’t see any other future other than one with more fires.”

And, he added, a future of “really stressed-out fire crews.” </s> (Reuters) - More than 200 people were missing early on Monday in California’s deadliest and most destructive blaze on record, one of two fires raging in the state which have killed at least 31 people and forced more than a quarter of a million evacuations.

The so-called Camp Fire 40 miles northwest of Sacramento burned down more than 6,700 homes and businesses in the town of Paradise, more structures than any other wildfire recorded in California.

The fire had burned more than 111,000 acres and was 25 percent contained by late Sunday, officials said. Its death toll of 29 now equals that of the Griffith Park Fire in 1933, the deadliest wildfire on record in California.

At least 228 people were still missing, according to Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea.

In southern California, the Woolsey Fire has scorched at least 85,500 acres and destroyed 177 structures. The blaze was only 15 percent contained. At least two people have died in that fire, according to officials from the statewide agency Cal Fire.

The blaze has forced the authorities to issue evacuation orders for a quarter million people in Ventura and Los Angeles counties and beachside communities including the Malibu beach colony.

Celebrities at the People’s Choice Awards Sunday night in Santa Monica, Ca., asked for prayers and donations for residents and first responders.

Reality television star Kim Kardashian said, ‘It’s been a really rough week in our home in Calabasas, Hidden Hills and our neighbors in Thousand Oaks and Malibu.”

Actor Melissa McCarthy said, “Please keep the victims, volunteers and firefighters in your thoughts.” She also asked people to donate to the Los Angeles fire Department Foundation.

Hot, dry winds were expected to whip up the fires burning in both tinder-dry southern and northern California until Tuesday, officials said.

“Winds are already blowing,” Chief Daryl Osby of the Los Angeles County Fire Department said Sunday. “They are going to blow for the next three days. Your house can be rebuilt but you can’t bring your life back.”

Governor Jerry Brown asked U.S. President Donald Trump to declare a major disaster to bolster the emergency response and help residents recover.

Trump has criticized the California government in Tweets this weekend, blaming poor forest management for the infernos. </s> California firefighters and emergency services continued on Tuesday to try to contain about a dozen fires still active in the state which have devastated over 100,000 hectares, according to official data on Tuesday.

At least eight people have in recent weeks died in the fires, which have swept through California due to its hot and dry climate. </s> Authorities searched on Monday for more than 200 people unaccounted for in one of the wildfires rampaging through parts of California, voicing concern about a possible rising death toll, with gusty, dry winds expected to fan the flames.

The so-called Camp Fire, California’s most destructive on record, had left at least 228 people missing as of early Monday, according to Kory Honea, sheriff of northern California’s Butte County, site of the fire. That fire and one in southern California have killed at least 31 people.

Both fires have been whipped up by hot dry winds expected to continue through Tuesday evening, according to officials. The winds were expected to heighten the risk of fresh blazes ignited by scattered embers. More than 224,000 people have been displaced by the fires, officials said.

The Camp Fire, 60km north of Sacramento, burned down more than 6,700 homes and businesses in the town of Paradise, more structures than any other wildfire recorded in California. The blaze has probably caused between $2 billion (€1.8 billion) and $4 billion in insured property damage, Morgan Stanley estimated in a report on Monday.

The fire had scorched more than 113,000 acres and was 25 per cent contained, officials said on Monday. Its death toll of 29 equals that of the Griffith Park Fire in 1933, the deadliest wildfire on record in California.

Speaking on CNN, Mr Honea said that while he held out hope that many people listed as missing would turn up safe, “given what we’ve dealt with so far with casualties as a result of this fire, I have concerns that it [the death toll] will rise”.

In southern California, the Woolsey Fire had burned more than 91,000 acres and was 20 per cent contained, officials said. The fire had forced authorities to issue evacuation orders for a quarter of a million people in Ventura and Los Angeles counties and beachside communities including the Malibu beach colony. By Sunday night parts of the two counties were reopened.

At least two people have died in the Woolsey Fire, according to officials from the statewide agency Cal Fire, which has more than 3,200 personnel fighting the blaze. The number of people missing in the Woolsey Fire was not immediately available.

Many of those allowed to return were left without power or a mobile phone service, even if their homes were spared by the flames.

A smaller blaze in southern California, the Hill Fire, was 75 per cent contained and had burned 4,531 acres, officials said.

Wind gusts of up to 100km/h were expected in the mountains, valleys and canyons of southern California, raising the possibility of downed power lines and trees. This, in combination with low humidity, was expected to create the perfect conditions for fires to spread.

Local residents were despondent over the fire damage.

“It’s not the house, because you can rebuild. But it’s what is inside the house. It’s all gone,” Malibu resident Marcella Shirk (82) told KABC-TV. “And that’s what hurts, those kinds of things hurt, because you can’t replace that.” She and her husband lost their house of 41 years and its possessions. The house burned on his 92nd birthday.

Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, has asked US president Donald Trump to declare a major disaster to bolster the emergency response and help residents recover. Mr Trump, a Republican who has often criticised Democrat-led California on a variety of issues including immigration enforcement, blamed the state government in Twitter comments during the weekend, criticising poor forest management by the state for the infernos.

Brian Rice, president of the California Professional Firefighters, called Mr Trump’s statement “ill-timed” given the loss of life and ongoing search for missing people. “You can’t just make a blanket statement,” Mr Rice told MSNBC on Monday, adding that fires and forest management were complicated and that weather also was a major factor.

“Right now, what is needed is, really, support,” Mr Rice said.– Reuters </s> The number of victims due to wildfires sweeping California has risen to 31, while more than 200 people are still missing, according to state officials.

Six more people were confirmed killed in the Camp Fire in the north of the state, reaching a death toll there of 29.

The fire is now the deadliest in California history, reaching a grim record previously established by the 1933 Griffith Park disaster in Los Angeles.

In the south, the Woolsey Fire has claimed two lives as it damaged beach resorts including Malibu.

The BBC reports that an estimated 250,000 people have been forced to flee their homes.

Meanwhile, California Governor Jerry Brown has urged President Donald Trump to declare a major disaster, a move that would harness more federal emergency funds. The appeal came a day after Trump argued that the fires were to blame on poor forest management and threatened to cut funding for California.

Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Firghters, called the president’s comments “reckless and insulting”.

Paradise, California has been the hardest-hit by Camp Fire, the most destructive in the state’s history. It has burned more than 111,000 acres and is nearly 25% contained, according to fire officials.

At a news conference on Sunday, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said the bodies of five people had been found in their burned-out homes and a sixth was found inside a vehicle.

He added that at least 228 people were still unaccounted for. The mayor of Paradise, Jody Jones, told the BBC that nearly 90% of the residential area is gone. “I had an opportunity to go up there and take a look for myself. Just about everyone I know lost their home,” Jones said.

According to experts, the current fires are due to a combination of climate change and weather conditions. </s> (Reuters) - One person was killed in a rapidly moving wildfire that sent residents fleeing from a northern California city on Friday as flames burned homes and businesses and knocked out power, fire officials said.

A bulldozer operator was killed in the so-called Carr Fire, a blaze in Shasta County that has tripled in size in the last two days to 28,000 acres (11,300 hectares), the state’s forestry and fire protection department said.

The blaze has crossed the Sacramento River and now threatens hundreds of homes on the western fringes of the city of Redding, fire officials said.

“The fire is moving so fast that law enforcement is doing evacuations as fast as we can. There have been some injuries to civilians and firefighters,” California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Scott McLean told the Sacramento Bee newspaper.

“It’s way too dynamic and burning quickly.”

Local and state fire officials were not available to confirm details of injuries.

Roads out of the city of 90,000 people were jammed with motorists trying to escape the flames, social media postings showed.

More than 1,700 firefighters were battling the blaze, Cal Fire said in an evening advisory.

“Right now they’re doing what they can, they’re trying to make a stand where they can, if possible,” McLean said. “It’s extreme. It’s blowing up off and on again.”

McLean added the wildfire was in an area of rolling hills and not in “house-to-house neighborhoods.”

Multiple power outages were reported, the city said on its website, adding that the electric utility was shutting off power in its northern areas.

California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in Shasta and Riverside Counties on Thursday over the Carr and Cranston fires, which were being supercharged by temperatures above 100 degrees F (37 C), erratic winds and low humidity.
Fires across California kill at least eight people. One month into the fiscal year, the state's emergency fund is about one quarter spent.