The state has spent $25.3 million on fighting wildfires this year, according to the Oregon Department of Forestry.
Those are gross costs. The federal government will reimburse the state for some of that cost, but it can take years for the reimbursements to come through, a spokesman for ODF says.
And that amount doesn’t include the agency’s “base budget” for fire protection, which is about $48 million for permanent personnel, equipment, facilities and the cost of fighting smaller fires.
As of Friday, about 20,800 acres were burning in 585 fires across the state on ODF-protected lands.
Read the whole story at Pamplin Media.
