Public utility sued over wildfire costs

OKANOGAN, Wash. – The state has filed suit against the Okanogan County Public Utility District in an attempt to recoup $161,000 in firefighting costs for a 2005 wildfire in north-central Washington.

The Squaw Creek fire was ignited Sept. 8, 2005, when a dead tree fell on a power line near Methow, about 50 miles north of Wenatchee. The fire burned an abandoned sawmill and 1,100 acres and forced the evacuation of six homes.

According to the lawsuit, filed Aug. 7 in Okanogan County Superior Court by the state Department of Natural Resources, the public utility failed to remove the dead tree near its power line despite “repeated warnings of hazard trees in that vicinity.”

“It’s standard procedure for us, when someone is clearly liable for starting a fire, to recover costs from them if possible,” said DNR spokeswoman Patty Henson. The department initially sought reimbursement from the utility, but the utility denied the claim, according to the lawsuit.

The state is also suing the Columbia Rural Electric Association for $3.7 million in firefighting costs for the 2005 School Fire in Columbia and Garfield counties. That fire, which started when a dead pine tree fell on 14,000-volt power lines, destroyed 216 structures and burned close to 52,000 acres.

Doug Adams, a spokesman for Okanogan County PUD, said he could not discuss the facts of the Squaw Creek fire, citing the litigation. But he said “it’s very rare” for the Okanogan County PUD to get a bill for the cost of suppressing a wildfire.

The utility’s insurance company made the decision not to pay the claim after its own investigation, he said.

Henson said the state has had a policy of trying to recover firefighting costs for more than 20 years. It also pays suppression costs to other firefighting agencies when the agency’s own actions spark a wildfire, she said.

The agency paid $987,284 to the federal government for fighting the 2001 Libby South fire near Carlton, she said. Investigators of that fire found that a hose in a DNR fire engine came loose and fell on the exhaust manifold, sending drops of burning rubber onto a dirt road and igniting DNR-protected lands.

“It goes both ways,” she said. “The DNR does pay for fire starts we are found to be liable for.”