TALLAHASSEE, Florida — The Florida Senate raised its proposed funding for emergency wildfire management to $40 million Tuesday, as the state continues to battle a severe wildfire season that’s burned more than 100,000 acres.
The Senate had originally not proposed any money for emergency wildfire management, but made the change after seeing this season’s severe wildfires, according to Senate environment and agriculture conference Chair Jason Brodeur (R-Sanford). The new offer puts the Senate closer to the House, which had originally proposed funding emergency wildfire management at $64 million.
“It’d be, I think, somewhat irresponsible of us not seeing what’s going on around the state and on the national news,” Brodeur told reporters Tuesday. “We had that in other places but thought it would be more visible if we put it right out there in front.”
More than 2,000 wildfires have burned 129,478 acres statewide as of Sunday. Firefighters were still fighting multiple South Florida wildfires Tuesday, with one in Broward County burning more than 11,000 acres and still not fully contained.
