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Vale, Ore. – Fighting fire is an expensive enterprise.

Whether it is a structural fire on private property or a wildfire on public lands, many thousands of dollars, even millions, could be spent on the suppression costs. This does not account for the substantial post-fire costs of emergency stabilization and rehabilitation, which can go on for many years after a fire is out. It also does not account for the lives lost every fire season in suppression efforts.

So the question is, when a wildfire breaks out, who foots the bill?

Most wildfires over the past several decades in the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Vale District have been caused by lightning. If that is the case, the BLM uses allocated funds—funds provided to the BLM by Congress—to fight the fire.

If the cause of the fire is unknown, or human cause is suspected, the fire is investigated by BLM investigators.

“All fires are investigated using a scientific methodology,” says Tom Morcom, Fire Prevention Officer at the Vale District BLM. “We investigate to determine cause and origin—sometimes as soon as the fire suppression teams go out to the fire, so long as it’s safe to do so.”

The goal of a BLM fire investigator is to identify the cause of the fire, and if a responsible party is at fault.

If the responsible party is determined to be legally liable, the BLM will seek cost recovery.

An example of such a case occurred in June of 2014. The Huntington Fire began on private property and eventually made its way onto public lands managed by the BLM.

The investigation determined that the fire started due to a resident conducting an improper barrel burn on their property. The barrel that the resident used was damaged, which allowed for embers to escape in the relatively high winds during the July heat. The fire ended up burning more than 1,300 acres—136 of these burned acres were on public land.

In total, the costs were more than $160,000. The BLM was able to recover more than $150,000 of the associated costs.

Once these funds are recovered, they are put to good use.

“Much of the recovered funds are put back into local prevention activities here on the Vale District,” Morcom says. “We’ll use the money to patrol, post signs about fire danger and prevention orders—we’ll even use these funds to pay our seasonal prevention technicians over the summer.”

The fire prevention booth at the Malheur County Fair, Owyhee Field Days, the Baker City’s Miner Jubilee and the Nyssa Kids Fair, and visits to local schools from Smokey Bear can all be attributed to these funds from cost recovery.

Morcom emphasizes though, that not all human caused fires are pursued for cost recovery. Cost recovery only is only pursued when legal liability of a responsible party is determined.

“If the responsible party is found to have intentionally set the fire, or is determined to be negligent, we will pursue cost recovery,” Morcom says.

“We understand that accidents happen, but the taxpayer shouldn’t shoulder the burden for individual negligence,” Morcom added.

The goal is not to stop fires from starting at all. Fire is a natural part of the landscape. Fire is even sometimes used as a tool to stop or prevent larger fires. The Vale District gets more than its share of fires from lightning. Preventing any unplanned or uncontrolled fire is paramount to ensuring the resiliency and long-term viability of the Great Basin ecosystem, and enables fire crews to focus on the significant number of lightning fires that occur on an annual basis.

“Uncontrolled and unplanned fires destroy property, threaten our landscapes and they threaten lives,” Morcom says.

“If any good can come from fires, it’s that we can use the funds we recover to keep human-caused fires from happening again.”

For free-for-use photos of fire investigation and Smokey Bear visits to schools, visit the BLM Oregon/Washington Flickr album below:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/blmoregon/albums/72157651567552599