Governors team up for fire fight

Washington stands ready to help its neighbor states this fire season, Gov. Christine Gregoire said Wednesday night, and Idaho, Montana and Oregon are prepared to reciprocate.

The governors of the four Northwest states spent about five hours huddled in the Spokane Convention Center, emerging after 8 p.m to announce “the beginning of a bipartisan relationship” to address common issues. Topping their list was a dismal snowfall this winter that has put the states’ forests at risk of fire and farmlands under the threat of drought.

Govs. Gregoire, Dirk Kempthorne, of Idaho, Brian Schweitzer, of Montana, and Ted Kulongoski, of Oregon, vowed to share their National Guard assets, including firefighting aircraft. The National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C., has also pledged to bring in troops from other states if needed, Gregoire said.

The governors are counting on cooperation and a little luck to get them through the summer.

“We are praying for the best and will be prepared for the worst,” Schweitzer said.

Gregoire, who declared a drought emergency in March, said recent rains have helped fill West Side reservoirs, but the emergency remains, especially in Eastern Washington, where late spring snowfall was not enough to have an impact.

In North Idaho, the snowpack is about 55 percent of normal. In southeast and south-central Washington, snowpacks are a third of normal.

Gregoire said the state Legislature has provided $11 million in drought preparedness funds. In the long term, Gregoire said, the state must look at Eastern Washington’s water storage capacity.

Also meeting at the convention center Wednesday were the adjutants general – guard commanders – of the four states.

The bulk of Washington’s National Guard forces serving in Iraq recently have returned but remain federalized. Idaho’s Maj. Gen Larry Lafrenz said that while 1,750 guardsmen are currently serving in Iraq, 60 percent of his force, 2,500 people, remains in Idaho and ready to help fight fires.

“From a Montana perspective, if we have an average fire season, we’ll be OK,” said Brig. Gen. Randall D. Mosley, adjutant general of the Montana National Guard. He was less concerned about getting along without his 1,500 soldiers now deployed overseas as he was the helicopters he will have to do without this summer.

For the time being, Mosley will have to make do with two UH-60 Black Hawks currently in the state. In the devastating 2002 fire season, a dozen Black Hawks dumped 2 million gallons of water on Montana fires. This year, he said, the state’s four giant CH-47 Chinooks will have to help out, as well.

Kempthorne said the governors have asked the federal government to free up firefighting airplanes, many of which have been grounded for safety concerns. He said a number of such tankers have been approved for flight in the past 30 days.

“It’s important for us to have assets available to move around in mountain states,” Schweitzer said of the firefighting agreement among the states.

But just as important is that fires are attacked immediately. He has asked the federal government to allow the states to attack fires when they are still only a few acres in size and even if they are on federal Bureau of Land Management land.

This is no time to get into “jurisdictional disputes,” Schweitzer said.