Obama Pushes For New Wildfire Suppression Financing

By Mónica Ortiz Uribe
February 26, 2014
Firefighters
Mónica Ortiz Uribe
Firefighters in Mogollon, New Mexico rest in between shifts during a 2012 wildfire in the Gila National Forest.

President Barack Obama wants the federal government to change the way it pays for the cost of fighting massive wildfires.

The annual cost of fighting wildfires in the United States has been close to $2 billion in the last three years. Obama wants that money to come from disaster relief funds instead of from the Department of Agriculture's budget. That would free up more money for fire prevention efforts.

Ellen Brown, a fire prevention specialist at the Gila National Forest in New Mexico, said preventing fires costs much less than putting them out.

"The main thing is making public contacts and helping people understand what can cause a fire," she said.

Arizona's largest wildfire on record was sparked in 2011 by an unattended campfire. Obama will include his plans for wildfire funding in the budget proposal he'll submit to Congress next week.