Costs of firefighting, prevention grow as Montana's wildfire season ramps up

MISSOULA, Mont. — Montana has swiftly entered wildfire season, and just this year it's already cost the state $2.7 million.

"We're anticipating more fires here in the Upper Great Basin and the Northern Rockies and Northwest," said Tina Boehle, information officer with the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise.

So far this year, Montana has had 20 large fires, with the total number of acres burned sitting around 30,000.

Last year, Montana had 28 large fires spanning a total of 53,942 acres. The total suppression costs were over $30 million. Nationally, $1.6 billion was spent fighting wildfires.

Cost depends on factors like prevention, suppression and the individual fire.

"When it comes to areas where there are people, we have aircrafts that come in," said Boehle. "Those do cost a lot of money, but it varies so much based on the individual fire."

Airtankers are aircrafts used to assist firefighting personnel on the ground by dropping retardant on wildfires. Neptune Aviation in Missoula houses nine airtankers, but all of them are currently across the country fighting fires.

"Airtankers are what we call a force multiplier," said Dan Snyder, senior vice president of Neptune Aviation. "Airtankers, helicopters don't actually put the fire out, but they assist ground personnel."

The airtankers are out for most of the year but return to Neptune Aviation for maintenance in the winter. Snyder said 2,000 to 3,000 hours are spent on maintenance for each plane.

"As with most aviation things, they're expensive because of the amount of engineering, the liability that goes into it, the testing that goes into it," said Snyder.

Chris Barth, a fire mitigation specialist in Montana, said costs of wildfires are never stable and are often hard to predict. Factors that lead to fluctuation include how large the fire is, how many resources are on the fire, whether those resources are crews, engines or aviation, what values are at risk and how long the fire goes on.

All the characteristics of wildfires make it difficult to predict how much this season will cost. However, preventing fires can also start at home.

"Everybody has a responsibility to prevent wildfires," said Boehle. "I think that's really Smokey Bear's message."

Boehle says to do your part in preventing wildfires, keep fires in campfire rings, make sure fires are completely out and cool to the touch before leaving the area and don't flick cigarettes out in dry areas.

"Being aware of what you do out there that could cause a fire helps to prevent those fires," said Boehle.