Feds Award Grant for Wildfire Cleanup, Humanitarian Aid

The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the award of a grant of up to $25 million to create jobs addressing debris cleanup and delivery of humanitarian aid to those affected by last year’s wildfires across the state, including residents in Los Angeles County.

As part of the allocation to the California Department of Employment Development, an initial award of $8,364,268 will create disaster-relief employment for 10 counties — Los Angeles, Fresno, Madera, Mendocino, Napa, San Bernardino, San Diego, Shasta, Siskiyou and Sonoma, according to the federal agency.

Since early September, more than 8,600 blazes have burned across the state, charring more than 4.1 million acres.

Los Angeles County had a series of wildfires in 2020, the largest being the Bobcat Fire, which broke out in the Angeles National Forest near Azusa on Sept. 6 and scorched more than 115,000 acres. Twenty-eight homes were destroyed and 87 were damaged.

The Bobcat Fire came dangerously close to Mt. Wilson and threatened some homes in Sierra Madre and left Altadena on evacuation alert.

In eastern San Diego County, the Valley Fire blackened 16,390 acres, destroyed 30 homes and 31 outbuildings, damaged 11 other structures, and left three firefighters injured after erupting in Japatul Valley on Sept. 5.

Supported by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014, National Dislocated Worker Grants temporarily expand the service capacity of dislocated-worker training and employment programs at the state and local levels by providing funding assistance in response to large, unexpected economic events that cause significant job losses, according to the federal Labor Department.