Tennessee officials estimate $5.5M cost to fight wildfires

November 21, 2016 at 1:33 p.m. | Updated November 21, 2016 at 1:33 p.m.

by Associated Press

Firefighters walk down a dirt road a wildfire burns a hillside Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, in Clayton, Ga. On Tuesday, the Tennessee Valley Authority issued a burn ban on its public lands across Tennessee and in parts of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia. U.S. Forest Service spokesman Adam Rondeau has said the agency is tracking wildfires that have burned a total of 80,000 acres across the South.
Firefighters walk down a dirt road a wildfire burns a hillside Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, in Clayton, Ga. On Tuesday, the Tennessee Valley Authority issued a burn ban on its public lands across Tennessee and in parts of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia. U.S. Forest Service spokesman Adam Rondeau has said the agency is tracking wildfires that have burned a total of 80,000 acres across the South.

Wildfires ravage Southeast

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - State forestry officials estimate it will cost $5.5 million to fight wildfires in Tennessee.

While the state Agriculture Department is planning on receiving a federal reimbursement of about $900,000, most of the cost of fighting the fires and paying for out-of-state crews and equipment from as far away as Montana and Alaska will fall to state government.

Agriculture Commissioner Jai Templeton told Gov. Bill Haslam in budget hearings on Monday that there may be a longer-term cost, too. Templeton says that because the fires are taking up the time and attention of forestry officials, they aren't available to plan and prepare for timber sales that usually take place in the first quarter of the year.

Officials note that twice as many acres burned in fires that started in 2000.

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