US, states struggle to pay spiraling cost of battling blazes

Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, CALIF.

The long and brutal 2017 wildfire season is stressing the state and federal agencies that have to pay for the army of ground crews and machinery required to fight them.

The federal government spent more than $2.7 billion on firefighting in its most recently finished budget year.

In California, firefighting costs have already chewed through more than half of the state’s $469 million emergency fund for big fires just three months in – and that doesn’t include the costs of the recent catastrophic fires. Officials said Friday they expect the cost of fighting those fires will be hundreds of millions of dollars.

Montana also struggled to pay for firefighting this year, with costs approaching $400 million by late September.

With pressure increasing on lawmakers and forest managers to find new ways to pay for firefighting and for fire prevention, here’s a look at some of key questions:

WHY ARE COSTS GOING UP?

The U.S. is seeing more and bigger wildfires, and the wildfire season is getting longer. The reasons are hotter, drier weather and a buildup of dead and dying trees because of past fire-suppression practices, said Jennifer Jones, a spokeswoman for the National Interagency Fire Center, which coordinates firefighting nationwide.

Some climate and forestry experts say global warming is a factor in the increasing number of fires because it’s contributing to the hot, dry weather.

WHO PAYS TO FIGHT FIRES?

The federal government, most states and some local agencies have firefighting budgets. Who gets the bill for any one fire depends on where it starts and whether it burns on land owned by the federal government, a state or local government or a private individual.

The U.S. Forest Service is the nation’s primary wildfire-fighting agency, but the Interior Department also pays hundreds of millions of dollars a year in fire costs.

Before 2000, the U.S. government’s firefighting costs never reached $1 billion. Since 2000, they have topped $1 billion 14 times, and they exceeded $1.5 billion 10 times, according to Forest Service records.