Spending to fight California wildfires tops $1 billion

Wildfire spending in California continued its upward climb this year, driven by one of the worst fire seasons in the state's history.

Almost a quarter of all the wild land that burned across the country in 2008 was in California -- roughly 1.4 million acres.

The fires, fought at a huge cost to taxpayers, failed to translate into any meaningful reforms at the state or federal level despite efforts in Sacramento and Washington.

Lawmakers introduced a number of measures dealing with land use, fire prevention and protection. But the proposals stalled, or in the case of one major state bill, were vetoed.

In fiscal 2008, half of the $1.4 billion that the U.S. Forest Service spent nationally on wildfire suppression was spent in California alone. State fire expenditures topped $1 billion.

"I think we've seen unprecedented fires," said Ruben Grijalva, director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Much of the California acreage burned in early summer, when an unusually fierce dry-lightning storm sparked more than 2,000 wildfires from Monterey County to the Oregon border. The biggest blaze scorched the mountainous Big Sur coast, forcing evacuations and closing California 1.

In the fall, the action shifted to Southern California, where the Marek, Sesnon and Sayre fires blew across the brushy hills of Los Angeles County, reducing hundreds of mobile homes to smoldering heaps. In Orange and Riverside counties, the 30,000-acre Freeway complex blaze destroyed nearly 200 residences. And the Tea fire chewed its way through Montecito neighborhoods.

All told, an area nearly three times the size of Orange County burned throughout the state. More than 2,300 structures were destroyed.

Statistics like that are driving efforts to adopt preventive measures.

"The solution is not just more engines, more airplanes," said Grijalva, who previously served as state fire marshal and Palo Alto's fire chief.

But the past year underscores how much easier it is to open the funding spigot than to pursue more fundamental reforms to rein in firefighting costs or shift more of the financial burden to those who live in high fire-hazard zones.

State Sen. Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego) sponsored several measures that went nowhere. One would have raised an estimated $43 million a year for fuel-reduction projects and state inspections by imposing a $50 fee on residences in areas protected by the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.