Cost of fighting wildfires expected to top $1 billion

WASHINGTON - The federal cost of fighting wildfires across the West soon will exceed $1 billion with Congress likely to dip into the treasury again this year to pay the final tab, federal officials said Wednesday.

So far the federal government has tallied at least $626 million in costs to battle scores of fires from Montana to New Mexico, spending as much as $18 million a day, according to the National Interagency Fire Center, which is coordinating the firefighting effort.

But several senior administration officials - after an internal review of the worst outbreak of wildfires in half a century - said it has become clear the firefighting costs will exceed $1 billion before long.

''Actual costs will be right at about a billion dollars,'' predicted Hank Kashdan, budget director for the U.S. Forest Service.

Officials at the fire control center said their running tally of $626 million is conservative and may understate overall costs because it focuses only on direct firefighting and does not include tens of millions of dollars spent this year on preparedness and training and other fire activities.

''A lot of the bills won't come in until after the fire season is over,'' said Lorraine Buck, a spokeswoman for the interagency group that has set up headquarters in Boise, Idaho.

The U.S. Forest Service and the Interior Department already have spent just over $1 billion this year on all of their fire programs - direct firefighting and preparedness - with another month of the fire season remaining.

''We're depleting all available reserves. ... We're going to be looking at fire suppression costs far in excess of what we have available,'' said Kashdan.

Just before leaving for its summer recess, Congress came up with an additional $350 million for fighting the wildfires, bringing the total amount budgeted for direct firefighting to $836 million this year.

While that is expected to fall short of what will be needed, officials emphasized the money will be found.

''Money is not an issue. The money is there to do what is necessary,'' said Linda Ricci, a spokeswoman for the administration's Office of Management and Budget. She said the Forest Service and Interior Department have discretion to temporarily shift funds from other areas of their budget and that the administration is prepared to ask Congress for additional funds if needed when lawmakers return in September.

Most of the money so far has been spent on salaries and support for more than 27,000 firefighters battling the western blazes, including several thousand soldiers.

The Forest Service has 16,000 people involved in firefighting activities, half of its work force, according to an agency spokeswoman. More than 1,200 fire engines, 240 helicopters and 42 tanker aircraft have been deployed.

This year's fire season is believed by Interior Department and Forest Service officials to be the worst in 50 years. So far nearly 73,000 fires have burned nearly 6.3 million acres, about a third in Idaho and Montana. Two million acres have been scorched in the two states alone.

The Clinton administration estimates that the value of lost forest, rangeland and wildlife habitat - as well as economic losses to businesses - could exceed $10 billion. In Montana alone, the fires were estimated to be costing businesses $3 million a day as vast areas of forest were closed to the public.

This year's fires also have unleashed a political firestorm, as Republicans have contended the Clinton administration's policy of limiting logging contributed to the fire risk, and that the administration was unprepared.

''The (federal) agencies knew with certainty that fire seasons such as the one we are currently experiencing were going to occur,'' claimed Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, chairman of the House Resources Committee. He cited a General Accounting Office report last year that concluded 40 million acres of federal forest in the interior West were at high risk of catastrophic wildfires.

Young said the administration ''should have geared up'' their fire activities.

However, Congress was not giving fire activities top priority either. Last fall, it approved $957 million for all fire programs for this fiscal year, $15 million less than the White House had sought, according to the Office of Management and Budget.

''This is the worst fire season we've had in a long time,'' said Jon Wright, an Interior Department spokesman. ''Nobody could have predicted that we would have this many fires going on at the same time.''

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Eds: AP reporter John Hughes also contributed to this report.