Biden Unveils Plan To Combat Threat Of Western Wildfires Amid Extreme Drought

President Joe Biden is meeting with the governors of Western states on Wednesday to discuss the growing threat of wildfires amid a severe drought and record-breaking heat wave across the region. 

The president is set to announce new efforts to increase wildfire prevention and response efforts, including hiring more federal firefighters and raising their pay to at least $15 per hour, according to senior administration officials in a press briefing late Tuesday. 

Federal firefighters, some of whom make about $13 an hour, according to the officials, will receive bonuses to bump up their pay in the short-term. Biden, who has called federal firefighters’ pay “ridiculously low,” aims to work with Congress to make the wage increases long-term. 

Other actions the Biden administration is planning to help fight fires this year and in the future include training other federal employees as “surge capacity” to help fight fires, improving early detection technologies for fires, and developing new apps and maps for people to check on wildfires growing nearby. 

As Western states endure extreme drought conditions and emerge from a heat wave that sent temperatures soaring above 100 in many areas in recent days, the president plans to ask state leaders what additional resources they need to face the threat of wildfires. 

This wildfire season, still early on, has already seen more wildfires than last year’s to date — and last year was a record-breaking wildfire season.

Climate change has led to hotter temperatures and drier conditions, creating longer, more destructive fire seasons. For instance, as of 2019, four of the five largest wildfires in California had happened in the past decade alone. But in 2020, four of the five largest wildfires in state history happened that year alone.