New state money will make its way to the Orange County Fire Authority to add a new facility that can house equipment and staff to fight wildfires.

State Sen. Dave Min, D-Irvine, helped procure $16.95 million for the new hand crew facility, for which fresh sites are currently being scouted. 

“When the Governor’s '22-23 budget included increased funding to hire a second, year-round OCFA Hand Crew, our gratitude was tempered by a lack of space and tools to properly house and equip the additional personnel,” said OCFA Fire Chief Brian Fennessy in a news release. 

Hand crews are the frontline forces in the fight against wildland blazes, deployed to locations where fire hoses and engines can’t reach. Hand crews clear brush and other dead, dry vegetation, or fuel, when there are not active fires. When a blaze is closing in on property, hand crews engage it by digging trenches or burning fuel ahead of the moving blaze in what’s called a firing operation designed to exhaust any available fuel.

The OCFA is currently out of space, and the new facility would allow more full-time members, joining the existing unit which was established in 2010 for seasonal deployment before taking on year-round duties in 2011. An additional, 10-person seasonal staff was added in 2018. Now the department has 40 members of its hand crew, which it says isn’t enough to serve county needs.

The new money further bolsters a program the OCFA considers integral to the protection of people and property in an increasingly volatile and harsh wildland fire environment. Fire departments across the county have been adding personnel and equipment, even coastal departments that haven’t historically had a role in wildland fires.

“Sen. Min heard our concerns, advocated on our behalf, and helped secure the state funds that will provide our expanding Hand Crew with the station and equipment to better protect our communities,” Fennessy said.