As of writing this, the firestorms in Los Angeles have claimed 23 lives and burned over 40,000 acres. A combination of drought and hurricane-force winds brought on by climate change has laid the groundwork for disaster on a terrifying scale. Unfortunately, there has also been a lot of misinformation regarding the fires, including budgetary and political finger-pointing. There are myths surrounding the LA wildfires that need to be debunked, as well as key facts and organizations that concerned citizens should keep in mind.

MYTH: Mayor Karen Bass cut the LA Fire Department’s budget by $23 million.

FACT: The LAFD has a budget of over $800 million. Bass cut $17 million compared to the last fiscal year, but $53 million in raises means the budget technically increased.

There is a lot of debate over the LAFD budget and how any cuts have impacted the fire department’s ability to fight the LA wildfires. Yes, the budget did decrease from $837,191,237 to $814,281,952 (you can find more information about LA’s budget here), but LA Mayor Karen Bass released this proposed budget back in April 2024—and the city council approved $53 million in raises for firefighters in November. 

Still, Bass has faced criticism for these budget cuts, including from LA Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, who warned officials in December, stating that the $7 million “reduction in v-hours [Overtime Variable Staffing Hours] has severely limited the Department’s capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies, including wildfires.” Crowley says that the city of LA has failed her and her department. 

Other officials claim the budget doesn’t have any impact on current ability to fight the wildfires. In a news conference, CNN quotes Bass as stating, “There were no reductions that would have impacted the situation we were dealing with over the last couple of days.” 

MYTH: Water shortages are Gov. Gavin Newsom’s fault—he blocked water from being redirected to Southern California to protect an endangered species of fish.

FACT: Newsom did block a redirection of water to protect the Delta smelt back in 2020—but it has no impact on water availability for firefighting today.

Trump recently posted on Truth Social, blaming California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, for the wildfires and stating that Newsom “refused to sign the water restoration declaration that would have allowed millions of gallons of water [...] to flow daily into many parts of California [...] to protect an essentially worthless fish.”

On X, Newsom’s press office posted in response to Trump’s accusations, criticizing Trump for “playing politics” and stating, “There is no such document as the water restoration declaration—that is pure fiction.” According to the BBC, Trump seems to have been referring to a 2020 presidential memorandum that would have redirected water from Northern California toward Southern Californian farmlands. 

Newsom did oppose this memorandum in favor of protecting the Delta smelt, but the redirected water wouldn’t have been used for firefighting anyway. According to Jeffrey Mount, the senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California's Water Policy Center, “While efforts to save Delta smelt [...] do reduce the amount of water that is moved from northern California by the state at certain times, it has no bearing on the current availability of water for fire-fighting.”

LA’s water supply—including the Santa Ynez Reservoir, which was unfortunately closed for maintenance when the fires started—is struggling to keep up with firefighting demands. Some fire hydrants in California are, in fact, running dry. Newsom has called for an investigation into water availability for firefighting, but it’s very likely that no urban water system would have been able to handle the strain.

MYTH: Newsom cut the fire budget by $100 million months before the fires.

FACT: California’s enacted budget for fire protection increased by $900 million from 2023–2024 to 2024–2025. Any decreases in the budget were made to account for a loss of funding.

Newsom’s alleged fire prevention budget cuts were first reported by Newsweek and then broadcast in Fox News headlines. The evidence provided for these budget cuts was a report from California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) that both Fox News and Newsweek referenced but did not link or quote. Newsom posted a tweet calling these claims “a ridiculous lie.”

After looking over the California LAO’s environmental protection spending plans for the 22–23, 23–24, and 24–25 fiscal years, I found that the issue of California’s fire prevention budget isn’t as simple as Fox News makes it out to be. Yes, there is a reported $100 million decrease in the Wildlife and Fire Resilience Package budget for 24–25, but these decreases had been decided well before 2024 to account for the condition of California’s General Fund. In other words, the budget adjusted for a loss of funding that had only been temporary in the first place. 

LAO’s report also reveals that the Wildlife and Fire Resilience Package kept 93% of its budget and that California’s enacted budget for fire protection actually increased by $900 million from the last fiscal year.

FACT: Thousands of Californians lost their home insurance before the fires.

According to CBS, in 2024 State Farm dropped about 1,600 insurance policies in Pacific Palisades and over 2,000 policies in other LA zip codes. California residents in areas prone to wildfires struggle to find coverage, and California’s FAIR Plan, which was designed to offer fire insurance to Californians who couldn’t find insurance elsewhere, has gained over 200,000 policies in the last four years. 

The situation is devastating. Tens of thousands of homes have been destroyed by fire, and uninsured Californians don’t have the money they need to rebuild. 

On Sunday, movie producer Tyler Perry criticized insurance companies on social media for their greed in the midst of the LA wildfires. “Does anyone else find it appalling?” Perry wrote. “People who have paid premiums all of their lives are left with nothing because of pure greed."

FACT: Over 900 incarcerated people are fighting the LA wildfires.

Currently, over 1,200 people are working to fight the fires in LA. Of these, over 930 are incarcerated, only earning between $5.80 and $10.24 per day of work. For reference, the California minimum wage is $16.50 per hour, and the starting pay for an LAFD firefighter is around $85,000 per year. 

Incarcerated firefighters work with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), CAL FIRE, and the Los Angeles County Fire Department on a voluntary basis. As voluntary as it can be, at least, when they also work to earn two-for-one credits: for every day they work fighting fires, they receive two days off of their sentence. Incarcerated support staff receive one-for-one credits. 

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) rightfully calls this practice exploitative. Incarcerated firefighters work in dangerous conditions where they are significantly more likely to get hurt than professional firefighters, while the CDCR holds their freedom over their heads. Moreover, because of their criminal records and despite their experience and training, incarcerated firefighters often find it incredibly difficult to find professional firefighting work after they’ve been released.

So, what can we do to help? For the incarcerated firefighters working to contain the fires in LA, we can donate to the Anti-Recidivism Coalition. The ARC is a nonprofit based in California that fights to end mass incarceration, and they recently started a fundraiser to support LA’s incarcerated fire crew, both throughout the firestorms and once the wildfires are contained.

There are also many foundations you can donate to that are helping victims of the wildfires, including California Wildfire & Disaster Relief, Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, the Red Cross, the CAL FIRE Benevolent Foundation, and California Community Foundation’s Wildfire Recovery Fund.