Platte County officials say post-fire ESPA compensation is inequitable
WHEATLAND — It could be two years or more before the official investigation is concluded to answer the question of why the Pleasant Valley fire was started, but the bottom-line cost for fire districts is a little clearer.
And, in the opinion of a growing number of firefighters including Platte County Fire Warden Aaron Clark, County Commissioner Steve Shockley, and Guernsey Rural Fire District’s Fire Chief David Warner, there are inequalities in the state’s Emergency Fire Suppression Account (EFSA) funding that should be addressed by state legislators.
The final cost accrued by all the agencies involved in fighting the Pleasant Valley Fire, which burned 28,984 acres from Guernsey to Ft. Laramie, was $5.5 million.
The cost for fire districts in Platte County, as submitted to the EFSA, totaled $227,219.83.
Of that, the districts who assisted with mutual aid received 100 percent funding for personnel and equipment costs accrued during the fire. The “host district” (the one in whose territory the fire started burning) receives 100 percent compensation for personnel, but only receives 25 percent from the EFSA to cover the equipment costs (fuel, tires, equipment, repairs or replacement) incurred in fighting the fire, placing an added financial burden on it.
Shockley, Warner, and Clark – who are also all firefighters – agree the Wyoming legislature needs to look at the statute and make changes to the way host districts are paid less than everyone else.
“It’s an equity situation…I almost consider it like the statute penalizes the host districts –there is no way Guernsey Rural could break even,” Clark said. “The way it’s set up, the people who are hurt the most are the districts who also incurred the greatest cost from the fire itself.”
In the case of Guernsey Rural Fire District, the remaining cost will have to come out of its savings account.
The EFSA’s fee schedule is set by the Wildland Cooperative Fire Control Agreement, an annual agreement between the federal, state, and regional agencies, including the Wyoming state board of land commissioners’ state forestry division.
Wyoming Statute 36-1- 4-2 was established by the Wyoming legislature to govern an Emergency Fire Suppression Account, which sets aside funds for wildfire relief efforts. It functions similar to an insurance policy to participating fire districts, though it isn’t insurance.
As explained by Clark, in Platte County, the fire districts collectively pay an annual premium of $8,500 to the EFSA, and if there is a need to “open up” the account to pay the cost of a fire, the host district is required to pay a deductible equal to the cost of the premium ($8,500) to release funding to pay for costs accrued during fire suppression efforts.
Once the account has been opened, the funding remains available for participating districts to fund fire fighting efforts for any fire until the conclusion of the fire season.
Only tax-funded fire districts (those with property tax mill levies) receive compensation, not city-funded departments.
When it comes to the numbers post-fire, Guernsey Rural Fire Department is sitting in the negative by an estimate of $30,000 stemming in large part from repair costs to its fleet of wildland firefighting vehicles.
“That is just a rough guess; we’re still down five vehicles that are being repaired as quickly as possible,” Warner said.
He said the district works to keep its vehicles in good shape and has the best equipment available for the type of fires for their area. Repairs after the fire have included fixing items like springs, torque rods, an engine, rear ends, a tank-protecting rack, etc.
According to EFSA paperwork, after being docked to receive only 25 percent compensation for total expenses incurred, Guernsey Rural received $10,887.50.
After the $8,500 “floor cost” was deducted out of the check, the district walked away with a sum total of $2,387.75 to pay for the fuel, maintenance, tires, and repair costs incurred during the intense eight-day battle in early August to bring Pleasant Valley Fire under control.
As discussed by county commissioners during their Sept. 4 meeting and confirmed by the county fire warden, the other fire districts in Platte County stepped in to help. They each agreed to help Guernsey Rural by donating six percent of their allotted compensation from the EFSA to help pay the floor cost.
The commissioners donated the use of two dozers to the blaze (resulting in $15,568.50 of compensation from the EFSA) but chose not to contribute a portion to Guernsey Rural Fire District.
Commissioner Shockley reasoned, “The county receives taxpayer money in the form of a mill levy which does not include earmarks to support fire suppression. The fire district receives mill levy funding for fire suppression; the county should not be transferring any of its taxpayer funding to an entity that already receives its own share of taxpayer funding.”
“The districts typically set aside the full amount of the deductible until after the fire season in case it is needed,” Shockley said, adding he didn’t feel it was the place of the county government to make up for a fire district which may have not have made the choice to set aside that funding.
“It’s in no one’s interest to get hurt. Those firefighters (Guernsey Rural) have some of the best firefighters and the best equipment in the county,” Clark said, adding the spray bars (which spray water in front of the vehicle in grassland fire situations) on their trucks alone – combined with their experienced crew – are regularly used county-wide with mutual aid requests.
“It ended up with Guernsey Rural in the negative,” Shockley said, adding he didn’t think the fire suppression accounts were set up fairly, but it can only be changed at the state level.
Clark emphasized the EFSA is good to have; it just needs some common-sense changes.
“This was a big fire. I knew it was beyond the capability of the county early on -- and it would likely end up in multiple jurisdictions. I made the call needed to open the EFSA. There is no way we could pay five-and-a-half million dollars for the fire,” Clark said. “A big cost is aircraft, which is $45,000 [per run.] Just one of those bills would break the county.”
Though the Pleasant Valley Fire had a huge impact on the local community – and the fact the entire town of Hartville was endangered more than once during the course of the fire – Clark said it was not a huge fire, as fires go.
“A moderate fire costs $9 million in Wyoming,” he said.
In describing firefighting efforts, Warner said, “About the time we could catch it, it would get away from us. It was like squeezing Jell-O. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Overall, though, the cooperative efforts of multiple firefighting groups “went smoothly with a few bumps in the road,” he added.
“I’m proud of what we did. People ought to be thankful. It could have been worse, and we could have lost Hartville,” the fire warden said. “Though there were smoke and eye injuries, no one was seriously hurt. Someone could have died…that fire was not like anything I’ve ever seen.”
He also said that while there are times the governor of Wyoming gets a lot of flack, he wanted to make sure to give him credit.
“Governor Mark Gordon was great. He came out for a tour during the fire, and he stayed out of the way and tried not to run it. And he helped with anything that was needed. He deserves credit with the fire season we had.”
Both Warner and Clark emphasize, though, the fire season isn’t over, and the county is still under a fire ban for a reason.
“The weather pattern reminds me of 2012. The fire season has been rough because of the dry weather, and the occasional rains don’t give any real relief. Be careful when you are cutting lawns and pastures: one spark can start anything… And if you see anything suspicious, don’t be afraid to call it in,” Warner said.
Both Guernsey Rural and Ft. Laramie fire districts are considered host districts, as far as the EFSA is concerned, since the fire is considered to have begun in Goshen County as soon as it crossed the county line. The districts are in separate EFSA districts and had to pay their own separate floor costs in order to receive state assistance to cover their separately accrued costs from the fire.
Each was only paid 25 percent of the EFSA fee schedule for equipment.
“The community poured their hearts out for us,” Clark said. “I want to tell folks they need to recognize volunteer firefighters in the county. We put out 90 to 100 fires for every one of the fires like Pleasant Valley Fire.
“Often, the firefighters are not recognized for what they sacrifice to put fires out. Lots of them put in money, time from work – or right after work, then spend all night doing mop-up, then go to work in the morning. It’s tough on them,” Clark said. “They just want to help their neighbors – that’s their motivating factor. We don’t give them enough credit.”
This story was published on October 2, 2024