CALIFORNIA (KGTV) — Gov. Gavin Newsom launched www.californiafirefacts.com on Saturday to address what he calls “mis- and dis-information” being spread online about the recent fires in Southern California.
It was inspired by allegedly false information being spread by Fox News, Donald Trump, and “Elon Musk’s platform,” or X, formerly known as Twitter, according to a press release.
“There is an astonishing amount of mis- and dis-information being spread online - much of it by so-called leaders and partisan media outlets who seek to divide this country for their own political gain,” said Governor Newsom in a statement. "It breaks my heart that families in Los Angeles don’t just have to worry about the fires but also this malicious disinformation as well.”
The website is primarily dedicated to responding to posts on X that the Governor alleges are false, like a Fox News post saying, “Gov. Newsom cut fire budget by $100M months before lethal California fires.”
“A ridiculous lie,” Newsom called this in his own post. “We have doubled the size of our firefighting army, built the world’s largest aerial firefighting fleet, and increased the forest management ten-fold since taking office.”
The Fox News article cites a Newsweek story that references, but does not link to, an analysis of California’s 2024 Budget Bill from the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office.
Newsweek claims the report concluded that the bill cut $101 million from seven “wildfire and forest resilience programs.”
The KGTV web team located a report from the LAO from October, 2024, that assesses the 2024-25 spending plan.
The budget, “Reverts $6 million from 2021-22 related to financing for wildfire and forest resilience projects,” according to the report, as well as a $12 million reduction in one-time funds that was budgeted for the California Wildfire Mitigation home hardening program.
Newsom says that since 2019, the number of CalFIRE personnel has nearly doubled, from 5,829 to 10,741, and that the CalFIRE budget has increased from $2 billion to $3.8 billion.
The fire facts website also addresses claims that California policy has led to a water shortage in Southern California.
“Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California…to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt,” President-elect Donald Trump said on Truth Social.
But Newsom says this is an “outlandish” connection and that the policy is not about water availability in Southern California.
“Broadly, there is no water shortage in Southern California right now, despite Trump’s claims that he would open some imaginary spigot,” the fire facts website says.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has a record 3.8 million acre-feet of water in storage, according to the fire facts website.
The fire facts website also says that water reservoirs in Southern California are at record levels, and that the Governor has called for an independent investigation into the loss of water pressure to local fire hydrants as well as reported unavailability of water from the Santa Ynez Reservoir.
“We are here to do the work and ensure the public knows the truth about what’s happening with these devastating fires, how their communities are being impacted, and how their government is working to protect and support them,” Newsom said in a statement.
Newsom is encouraging the public to visit ca.gov/LAFires for resources and up to date information.
Californiafirefacts.com will be providing valuable, fact-based information around policies, budget allocations, personnel on the ground, and more, and you can donate to Cal Fire Foundation through the fire facts website.
