The state owes more than $200 million to firefighters and contractors who helped put out more than 2,000 fires this summer and fall

By Alex Baumhardt, Oregon Capital Chronicle

The 2024 fire season cost Oregon emergency response agencies nearly $350 million, and the state leaders are struggling to find a way to cover outstanding bills.

Gov. Tina Kotek announced Tuesday, following reporting from Oregon Public Broadcasting, that she’ll call a special session of the Legislature on Dec. 12 to appropriate at least $218 million from the state’s general fund to cover remaining fire costs. Lawmakers will already be at the Capitol for committee hearings during that time. More than half of the $350 million in outstanding debts will eventually be covered by disaster relief funds from the federal government, according to a news release from Kotek’s office, but the state wants to pay those owed as soon as possible. 

Rep. Pam Marsh, D-Ashland, explained that it’s about ensuring state agencies don’t burn bridges with private contractors who stepped in to help with fire prevention or response work this year.

“We contracted with people, and we are obligated to pay them, and we will want many of those people to bring their machines, their aircraft, their bodies back next fire season,” Marsh said. 

Nearly 2 million acres burned this summer and fall — more than three times the 10-year average — mostly in eastern Oregon grass and shrub, with about 25% of it in forestland, according to the Wildland Mapping Institute. More than one-third of all acres burned have been on private land, and about 62% was on federal land. At least 42 homes and 132 other structures were burned. 

President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to withhold federal wildfire reimbursements to California as a form of political gamesmanship. Asked whether Kotek is seeking more money to prepare for potential federal withholding, Anca Matica, a Kotek spokesperson, said it’s not part of the current issue being solved by the special session.

“The state needs to pay its bills as expeditiously as possible,” Matica said in an email.

Kotek declared a state of emergency in response to wildfire threats and invoked the Emergency Conflagration Act a record 17 times. This mobilized structural firefighting resources coordinated by the Oregon State Fire Marshal’s office to local communities. The state fire marshal is on the hook for more than $200 million of the $218 million owed by the state to contractors. 

Incoming House Republican leader Christine Drazan of Canby expressed frustration in a news release that Kotek did not talk with her or her peers before announcing the special session, but she said Republicans are willing to work cooperatively to solve the funding issues. Drazan lost the 2022 gubernatorial race to Kotek, and the two frequently butted heads in the House when Kotek served as speaker and Drazan as minority leader.

“Evidently, the Governor will be communicating via press release rather than a phone call. That is her prerogative,” Drazan said. “Despite this bizarre approach to leadership, Republicans welcome the opportunity to solve this problem by ensuring the people who work to protect Oregon communities during wildfire season are paid for their service.” 

The Department of Administrative Services, responsible for tracking spending, did not respond to a request for a list of outstanding payments from the wildfire season by Tuesday afternoon. Fire agencies already got $47.5 million from the Legislature’s Emergency Board in September to cover some outstanding costs, and the Oregon State Treasury rejected the Department of Forestry’s request for a $60 million loan last month, according to reporting from Willamette Week.

Wildfire protection and response costs in Oregon are generally split between private and public forest and range landowners and Oregonians via the state’s general fund. Costs for 2024 were projected to be about $136 million. 

“Fighting wildfires of the magnitude we saw this season required a tremendous level of resources that even wildfire experts couldn’t foresee,” said House Speaker Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, in a statement.

Alex Baumhardt has been a national radio producer focusing on education for American Public Media since 2017. She has reported from the Arctic to the Antarctic for national and international media, and from Minnesota and Oregon for The Washington Post.