B&B Complex Fire is expensive

Keeping clean in a dirty environment... photo by Torri Barco

The B&B Complex Fire is the second most expensive fire burning in the country today, costing $28 million from August 19 to date, according to fire officials.

Like the fire itself, often the costs can skyrocket without warning. The money is used to fight the 90,000-plus-acre fire as well as to accommodate the approximate 2,200 firefighters and support personnel who have left homes all over the United States to make camp at the rodeo grounds.

"The cost is unpredictable," said Shelley Nolde, cost unit leader with the Great Basin National Incident Management Team. "It depends on how we are fighting the fire, if the fire is in the wilderness or if it spreads to houses. Like every decision, we try to keep costs down but it takes a lot to support the people in the fires."

One Kaman KMAX helicopter alone cost $25,500 to contract and operate for one day, according to a camp report from Nolde. That day, the helicopter dropped 62,000 gallons of water and flew for 6.1 hours.

Air tankers carrying about 2,500 gallons at 70 cents per gallon average $2,200 per flight.

A Bell 212 helicopter, which transported 696 pounds of cargo and dropped 1,280 gallons of water, cost $7,500 to fly for 1.5 hours, according to the report.

Between the Booth and Bear Butte fires, about $3.8 million has been spent on total aircraft expenses to date.

About $100,000 per day is spent on supplies, which include anything from sleeping accommodations and firefighting tools to office supplies, Nolde said. Supplies are primarily ordered from the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, and cost $1.9 million from August 19 to September 11.

During that same time period, the camp spent about $2 million on supplies which were transported via "cache vans." The supplies are calculated based on an average cost of $35 per person per day for all camp personnel, according to a cost report.

Supplies, water, gasoline and services must be provided in mass amounts.

The camp uses about 3,000 AA batteries per day for its 256 radios, which are given to command leaders fighting fires, said Mark Hall, communications unit leader.

Firefighters need temporary radio repeaters to broadcast the radios over greater distances. Support personnel have installed as many as eight repeaters around the two sides of this fire, which have been especially crucial to transport radio frequency across the tall mountain ranges, said Mark Hall, communications unit leader.

Phone costs are reduced because the rodeo grounds have ample phone connections, Hall said. The camp spends $5,000 per month on its 52 phone lines. Fortunately, fire crews did not have to use satellite to hook up phones at the rodeo grounds because that would have cost $145,000 per month, Hall said.

The camp contracts with two companies for shower trailers which contain eight to 14 shower booths. The showers cost about $2,500 per day, according to Nolde's report.

A 14-shower trailer built by Ward Brothers of Sugar City, Idaho, pumps an average of 3,600 gallons of water per day, a Ward Brothers official said. The shower, which is open from 5 a.m. to midnight, uses a 1.1 mil. BTU boiler for heat.

Six people operate the laundry trailer, which holds two washers and three dryers for all 2,000 campers. Pat Nottier, a retired resident of Redmond, said she receives 200 bags of laundry per day.

The washers and dryers have been running non-stop.

Overall, the rodeo grounds have been a prime location to house the firefighters, said Jean Bergerson, information officer.

"The utilities were already here," Bergerson said. "Usually we have to run in phone lines and generators."

She said the site met the minimum requirement of 40 acres, has flat ground, ample parking for large vehicles and shaded areas for crewmembers who need to sleep during the day.