KELSEYVILLE >> U.S. Representatives Mike Thompson and John Garamendi were outspoken at Wednesday’s community meeting about their joint efforts to secure more funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in order to offset the gargantuan costs of the Mendocino Complex Fires.
According to an Associated Press report Thursday, California has already spent $125 million of its fire budget firing wildfires, and it’s only been a month into the new budget year.
“I was on the phone for an hour today with [FEMA],” Thompson said, noting that he believes FEMA is willing to try to help Lake County. This extra help would come in the form of individual assistance grants, which have been awarded following California’s wildfires as recently as 2017.
Public fire management assistance grants have been awarded already in the Mendocino Complex fires. These grants “provide federal funding for up to 75 percent of eligible firefighting costs,” according to FEMA.
If Thompson and Garamendi are to be successful in securing individual assistance funding for the Mendocino Complex fires, they will need to overcome one obstacle: the relatively low amount of property damage that has been incurred compared to other major fires currently burning in California.
An August 1 Redding Record-Searchlight article estimated costs of fire suppression alone on the Carr Fire to have been more than $25 million, with property damage upwards of $250 million. The Ferguson Fire has been more than twice as expensive to fight, at about $65 million.
While suppression costs for the Mendocino Complex are sure to be high, relatively few structures have been destroyed by the fires. But Thompson and Garamendi are working on a way around that: they are hopeful that they can get FEMA to recognize the similarities between the Carr Fire in Redding and the fires in Lake and Mendocino counties. “I’m trying to find a nexus between the Carr Fire and us here,” Thompson said.
If such a connection were recognized by FEMA, disaster grants in Lake County could become a welcome reality. Though the FEMA website states that “fires aren’t often declared as major disasters,” the federal agency approved more than $16 million of individual assistance and $280 million of public assistance grants in 2017 to eight counties (including Lake) in California following the state’s worst fire season in history.
Last year’s FEMA grants came after the most expensive fire season in California history, which topped out at $758 million. With the 2018 fire season far from over, and California’s fiscal year just beginning its second month, firefighting costs have already topped $100 million. With public assistance grants already awarded this year, individual grants are the next project for Lake County’s federal representatives.
