OLYMPIA — Emergency officials are a critical step closer to ensuring that their ability to mobilize resources for fighting wildfires also applies to disasters such as the Oso mudslide.
The House Appropriations Committee unanimously approved a bill last week to ensure the state wildfire mobilization law covers responses to non-fire incidents such as landslides, earthquakes, floods and outbreaks of contagious disease.
It also spells out that fire departments, fire districts and regional fire protection authorities are eligible for reimbursement of expenses related to a mobilization.
A year ago, the same panel didn’t act on an almost identical bill because its chairman, Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina, had concerns it might trigger an increase in mobilizations and bring a surge in costs to the state.
The Washington State Patrol denied a request for a state-authorized mobilization during the deadly Oso mudslide because it was a non-fire emergency. In making their decision, authorities relied on an opinion from the state Attorney General’s Office critical of the law’s use in response to the 1999 World Trade Organization riots in Seattle.
The mobilization law took effect in 1995 and has been used 180 times without rejection. The only other non-fire mobilization was for a motorcycle rally in Spokane in 2005.
Last March’s denial, during an obvious natural disaster in which 43 people died, added urgency to years of efforts to retool the law, changes that were sought by fire chiefs from Snohomish County and around the state.
The Oso rejection led to a recommendation for change from the nonpartisan commission created by Gov. Jay Inslee and Snohomish County Executive John Lovick to review the disaster and the broader emergency response. It was one of the key action items in the group’s report.
On Monday, Hunter said he stopped the bill in 2014 partly because it did not seem the existing law was preventing fire officials from taking needed actions in emergencies.
He said he’s since gained a better understanding that the bill would “basically put the situation back to where it was before the attorney general opinion.”
The bill, House Bill 1389, advanced to the Rules Committee on Feb. 19. It could be voted on by the House as early as next week. An identical bill, Senate Bill 5181, is awaiting action in the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
Wayne Senter, executive director of Washington State Fire Chiefs, lauded Hunter’s decision.
“The major reason for passage this year versus last was the chair’s willingness to have an open dialogue and for us to have an opportunity to educate the committee leadership and members on the need and the safeguards in place to ensure that (the mobilization law) would only be used in the most devastating incidents,” he wrote in an email.
Senter also praised Rep. Roger Goodman, D-Kirkland, who has sponsored the bill for several sessions “before some of the disasters demonstrated the need to do this.”
Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
