LOS ANGELES, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- More than 155 million dollars have been doled out for wildfire recovery in Southern California, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said on Saturday.

    FEMA has newly approved a public assistance grant of 41.4million dollars to Cal Fire, a fire recovery agency, as recovery assistance for damages and losses in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, officials said.

    The grant reimburses the state for regular employee overtime, equipment use and rental costs, contract labor, aircraft use, materials and similar costs incurred by other firefighting agencies.

    Currently, 18,605 Californians have registered for state and federal disaster assistance, FEMA said.

    Disaster assistance doled out to date includes 59 million dollars in U.S. Small Business Administration loans to homeowners, renters and business owners, 8.5 million dollars in FEMA housing assistance grants for rental expenses and home repair or replacements, and 3.4 million dollars from FEMA and the state for losses and damage to personal properties.