UPDATE: The fireworks that started the fire came from Oklahoma.
Izabel fire costs pegged at $20,000
By HILLARY DAVIS
Sun Staff Reporter
The cost of last week's Izabel fire will take some time to officially tabulate, but officials at the Flagstaff Fire Department estimate it to come to about $20,000.
Whether the boys who confessed to starting the blaze or their parents will be billed for some or all of the costs has not yet been determined.
Although it will take a while to get all of the expenses in line, assistant fire chief Jerry Bills said the department is looking at that number as a ballpark figure for the cost of the air tanker drops, the lead plane, and the city and U.S. Forest Service firefighting crews that were needed to quell the 5-acre blaze.
When calculating the approximate $500,000 tab for last summer's 125-acre Woody fire, for example, the agency crunched numbers for several weeks.
"I remember with the Woody, it probably took us about three months or four months to actually get a number," Bills said. "When you start thinking about the police officers that were there, and the sheriff's office, and then dispatchers, and all of that time spent, it just keeps snowballing out and getting bigger. So it takes us a while to corral all that and actually get a real number."
Two air tankers dropped four slurry loads on the fire, which sparked Friday afternoon along the east-facing slope of McMillan Mesa, not far from homes in the densely populated Sunnyside neighborhood.
Three area boys, ages 11 to 13, have confessed to setting the fire while playing in the woods with fireworks that a parent had purchased in Oklahoma. They will face criminal charges, possibly including possession of fireworks, reckless burning and criminal damage.
Hillary Davis can be reached at 556-2261 or
[email protected].
I'm just glad he didn't say a handle on it. :eek: