FEMA reimburses CDF for fire costs

The Sawtooth fire as seen from a hill in Yucca Valley. The road below is Highway 62. Photo by Westerberg

Lauren McSherry, Staff Writer
San Bernardino Sun

A year and a half after the Sawtooth Fire burned in the desert west of Yucca Valley, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced Wednesday it is granting more than $8.8million to reimburse the state forestry agency for costs incurred fighting the wildfire.

The money will be given to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection through the Fire Management Grant Assistance Program.

Under the program, FEMA covers 75 percent of the cost of fighting fires on public and private land that could constitute a major disaster. The state is left to make up the remaining 25 percent.

The Sawtooth Fire started on July 9, 2006, and was not contained until July 18. It swept across about 61,700 acres and threatened houses in Pioneertown, Yucca Valley and parts of the Morongo Basin.

Daniel Berlant, spokesman for the CDF in Sacramento, declined to comment on how the money would be spent, but said it is routine to apply for the grant anytime there is an evacuation in conjunction with a major wildland fire.

Kelly Hudson, a FEMA spokeswoman, said the money is typically used to restore an agency's budget after local firefighters and other groups that helped battle the fire are paid.

She said the state agency had about a year to submit the application, which requires thorough documentation of expenses.

"It's not that the locals went unpaid," Hudson said. "They were paid. We're reimbursing the state agency."

The money could go toward the cost of field camps, the repair and replacement of equipment, tools, materials and supplies as well as mobilization and demobilization activities, according to FEMA.

Money for the grant program is allocated from the President's Disaster Relief Fund.

"FEMA is committed to assisting firefighters in getting them the critical resources they need to respond quickly and effectively to the unpredictability of wildfires," said FEMA Region IX Administrator Nancy Ward in a statement.

Fires spark warnings

Gina Tenorio, Staff Writer

Fire crews throughout the county are being vigilant and feeling fortunate.

Despite warm weather and a number of fires - some caused by humans, some by nature - no serious damage has been done, officials say.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the U.S. Forest Service worked together to extinguish the flames before they crept into the San Bernardino National Forest, said Bill Peters, A CDF spokesman.

Dozens of lighting strikes have sparked small fires. In the Mojave National Preserve, a blaze called the Valley View Fire had blackened 40 acres off Cima Road east of Interstate 15, east of Baker on Wednesday.

As of Wednesday evening, it was 80 percent contained, U.S. Forest Service officials said.

In Oak Hills, crews fought a 50-acre fire. On Wednesday, Forest Service personnel fought small fires ignited by more lightning throughout the area, Martinez said.

They've been fortunate the fire season has been moderate but the bottom line for residents is they need to be careful, Peters said.

Unnatural disasters: 'We will spend whatever is necessary'

Fire costs escalating

San Bernardino Sun
By Guy McCarthy, Staff Writer

It cost fire agencies more than $5.2 million to fight three major blazes ignited Wednesday in San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

Nearly half that cash was spent battling the Hackberry Complex Fire in the remote and sparsely populated Mojave National Preserve.

A $5.2 million bill for less than a week of firefighting may sound like a lot. But it's a pittance compared to recent fire seasons in Southern California, one of the nation's most inferno-prone regions and home to unprecedented housing booms encroaching ever further into fire country.

"That's one of the complications of civilization,' said Santa Barbara County fire Capt. Steve Kliest, who worked the Hackberry Complex Fire on Monday. "With communities spreading into these wilderness areas, we have to protect the homes. And it's costly.'

During the height of the 2003 fire season, the U.S. Forest Service spent $100 million on 10 days of firefighting in Southern California alone. The Forest Service averaged $75 million per season in the region during the past five years, said Vallejo-based Forest Service spokesman Matt Mathes.

While state agencies such as the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection cope with limited annual budgets, federal agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management have access to virtually unlimited congressional cash if it is needed.

The CDF budget for fire protection statewide for 2005-06 is $748 million, Sacramento-based CDF spokesman Michael Jarvis said. CDF also has $95 million in emergency funding set aside.

"Bottom line, BLM dispatches the level of resources crews, aircraft, equipment determined by the personnel in charge of any given fire,' said Janet Bedrosian, a BLM spokeswoman in Sacramento. "They tally costs as they go against appropriations funded by Congress.

"When those costs are expended, bills are paid from other accounts, or new funds are appropriated by Congress as needed, either during the fires or at the beginning of the next fiscal year to make up for other funds spent on fires,' Bedrosian said.

"We will spend whatever is necessary to protect lives and property.'

The federal BLM had spent $2.3 million on firefighting in California so far this year as of Sunday, Bedrosian said.

Federal guarantees of unlimited firefighting funds help developers and pro-growth elected officials continue to sell the myth of the Southern California dream that fuels mass migration to the region, said fire ecologist Richard Minnich, based at UC Riverside.

"There's a big difference between fighting fire in a consolidated city with paved streets and blocks, compared to the wildland fuel-scape that we're building into more and more,' Minnich said. "People living in these areas unrealistically expect the same fire protection, and Congress fuels that with unlimited cash.'

The message to property owners and new homeowners translates all too often into a soothing subsidy of risky lifestyle choices, Minnich said. People who a hundred years ago either would never live in such fire-prone country or would pay for their own fire protection now rely on state- and federal-funded services.

"They say, 'I can live in a lake of gasoline and expect to be protected,'' Minnich said. "The government encourages land-use sprawl into wildlands through FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency), getting people money to rebuild in these landscapes of gasoline. Where's it going to end?'

The Hackberry Complex Fire in the Mojave National Preserve cost $2.3 million as of Monday afternoon. Federal authorities said the fire was 95 percent contained Monday morning, but about 950 firefighters were still working.

Final costs of fighting the Paradise Fire in Morongo Valley and the Soboba Fire near San Jacinto in Riverside County totaled $2.9 million. Hundreds of structures were threatened in more densely populated communities nearby.
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Cost estimates for the region's largest blazes so far this fire season, as of Monday afternoon:

Hackberry Complex Fire: More than 70,600 acres burned, including natural and cultural resources. Five homes, six trailers and other structures destroyed. Wednesday through present. COST: $2.3 million.

Paradise Fire, Morongo Valley: 3,022 acres burned. Six homes destroyed, one damaged. Wednesday through Saturday. COST: $1.2 million.

Soboba Fire, San Jacinto: 2,080 acres burned. No homes or structures destroyed. Wednesday through Saturday. COST: $1.7 million.

Crews Make Headway Against Fires Raging in Mojave National Preserve

The five blazes are 65% contained after burning 65,200 acres and razing five homes, six trailers.

By Louis Sahagun, Staff Writer
Los Angeles Times

A group of fires in the eastern Mojave Desert was 65% contained Saturday after burning about 65,200 acres of dry brush and destroying five homes and six trailers, authorities said.

About 935 firefighters from throughout the state battled the five fires, which were started by lightning Wednesday in the sprawling Mojave National Preserve about 40 miles west of the Nevada border, said Capt. Greg Cleveland of the Southern California Incident Management Team.

"This was the largest fire on record within the 1.6-million acre preserve," he said. "The fire behavior we experienced on Thursday, when we had strong southwesterly winds, was almost explosive."

The fires charred vast expanses of grass, sagebrush and pinyon in remote, rocky terrain in the preserve, which includes historic vertical mine shafts and unexploded ordnance dating to World War II, he said.

"Firefighters made good progress Saturday because the winds were not as strong as expected," Cleveland said. "We only had one minor injury: a pulled hamstring."

Also Saturday, a fire in the Santa Clarita area charred about 125 acres and was 100% contained.

About 100 firefighters attacked the blaze northwest of Val Verde Park and southwest of Castaic. There were no reports of injuries or damaged structures.

Separately, two fires in San Bernardino and Riverside counties that together burned 5,100 acres were fully contained Saturday, fire officials said.

In San Bernardino County, the Paradise fire in Morongo Valley, about 20 miles north of Palm Springs, destroyed six houses and damaged another.

"We will be doing minor mop-up and patrolling over the next few days," said California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Capt. Steve Faris. "But this fire is pretty much out."

In Riverside County, the Soboba fire near San Jacinto burned 2,080 acres.

One firefighter battling that blaze hurt his knee, and another had abdominal pain. No structures were damaged.