Expense of firefighting soars

Timm Herdt in the Ventura County Star (California): For more than 70 years, Ventura County’s 220,000-acre Matilija fire of 1932 held the record as the largest in California history. These days, however, its historic status has become a relic not unlike Roger Maris’ home-run record in the days before baseball’s steroid era. Matilija’s previous record has been surpassed twice in the past six years, and the sobering trend suggests that it won’t be long before it slips further down the list.

Of the 10 largest fires recorded in California since 1932, seven have taken place since 2003, one, the Station fire in Los Angeles County, just two months ago. The evidence is clear that in the 21st century California is experiencing the equivalent of fire seasons on steroids. The danger lasts nearly year-round, the fires cover more territory, and the costs of fighting them are soaring to unprecedented levels.

This year, even while Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers were slashing state spending nearly across the board, the line item in the state budget for emergency fire suppression was more than doubled, from $69 million to $189 million. In all likelihood, even that boost won’t be enough to cover the costs: As of Oct. 1 — just three months into the budget year — about $150 million of that $189 million had been spent.

“We’ve got $39 million to go, and we are just entering what has historically been the time of year when we have seen our largest and deadliest fires,” said Janet Upton, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the state’s firefighting agency. It seems likely that soon the state, as it has in nine of the past 10 years, will have to tap its budget reserves to pay for emergency firefighting costs…

A 2007 California fire by moonlight, from the US Forest Service