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Let me just say that on behalf of the Governor and all of us in state operations,
our sympathies go out to those who lost property and homes. We know how difficult of a time this
can be. We know that 50 homes is a lot of homes and we certainly understand there
could be more. It really focuses on the significance of the firefight and our activities to be
able to mitigate this particular situation.
As many of you know, yesterday the Governor
proclaimed a state of emergency for Shasta, Tehama and Plumas Counties in relation to
these fires themselves. This emergency declaration positions us well to be able to
minimize any impediments that may arise to be able to streamline the firefighting efforts.
It also continues to put emphasis on the seriousness of this situation and makes all
available state resources on tap for responding and mitigating this situation. Also, the
Governor has been able to secure a, what we call, Fire Management Assistance Grant from
the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is designed to be able to cover a majority
of the response costs associated with this particular set of fires. And it will help
a great deal for the local authorities and the state agencies that are responding to
the Ponderosa Fire and being able to address some of the costs.
Our office has been very engaged working with
CAL FIRE and the California National Guard and all of the mutual aid stakeholders and
participants. Currently we've got over 61 strike teams committed to this fire, over
300 engines and over 1,000 firefighters on the line. We will continue to provide
those resources as necessary. We know, as it has been mentioned by Chief Pimlott,
that we are early in the season, and this is more of a marathon not a sprint. And
so we are prepared and the Governor is prepared to support all the activities as necessary.