Breaking with the precedent of past years, Sweetwater County will join the Wyoming Emergency Fire Suppression Account this year.
The Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously during Tuesday's meeting for the county to join the account, which is set up by the Wyoming State Forestry Division. County Fire Warden Jim Zimmerman and Deputy Fire Warden and Fire District No. 1 Fire Chief Scott Kitchner presented to the commissioners to explain the account and the reasons for joining it.
"Basically it's an insurance policy," Zimmerman said. "What it's there for is to mitigate the impact of a disastrous fire."
The account is paid into so that counties with large fires can apply to the state for funds to help cover the cost of the fire.
"It doesn't necessarily even have to be a huge fire," Kitchner said, explaining that an average fire costs about $2-3 million. "That's a bill that could potentially come back to the county."
The account currently has around $20 million in it, and Sweetwater County is currently the only county in Wyoming that isn't a part of it, according to Zimmerman.
The State Forestry Division sends out annual requests for counties to join the account. The initial buy-in cost is three times the annual cost. This means joining will cost the county about $169,800, and after that the annual fee will be around $56,600.
When a large fire occurs, whatever percentage of the fire is on county lands is the percentage of the bill the county is expected to pay, Kitchner explained. He said that in 2021, 12 Wyoming counties used funds from the Emergency Fire Suppression Account.
Kitchner predicted that Wyoming and Sweetwater County could have dangerous fire seasons this year. With the increased amount of snow over the winter, the early moisture means grass grows rapidly, which makes the chance of fires catching and spreading even higher than normal, he explained.
He also pointed out that Sweetwater County has high potential for fires, and it's been a while since we've had a large fire, so we're "due" for one.
"It's not if it's going to happen, it's when it's going to happen," he said.
Kitchner also pointed out that the county has to be part of the account in order for any of the individual fire districts in the county to be able to apply for state funds to help cover the cost of a fire.
"You'd be helping everybody," he said. "You're paying for the what ifs."
Commissioner Robb Slaughter asked why previous commissioners had decided against joining the account since it sounds like a beneficial decision.
Kitchner said he believed past commissioners had pointed to the cost of joining and the need for budget cuts as reasons to not join.
"I know the other commissioners felt like we're a public lands county, the BLM's going to cover most of the fires, but I have since been educated," Thoman said.
Both Thoman and Commissioner Island Richards pointed out that the county has saved thousands of dollars from consolidating the county's fire services, which is more than enough to cover the buy-in fee.
Richards also noted he believes the buy-in fee is lower now than it has been in the past.
"I think if ever there was a time to join it would be now," Thoman said.
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