After an initial denial, the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Friday authorized the use of federal funds to help with firefighting costs for the Rowe Creek complex wildfire burning in Crook and Jefferson counties in central Oregon.
FEMA Region 10 Acting Regional Administrator Vincent J. Maykovich gave the thumbs-up at 5:49 p.m., after deciding that the Rowe Creek complex blaze qualified as a potential major disaster, a FEMA news release Saturday said.
As of Saturday, the Rowe Creek blaze had burned 313,439 acres and was 57% contained.
Oregon had originally asked for aid for five major fires. On Wednesday, FEMA approved financial assistance for the Lower Dry Creek, Akawa Butte and Grasshopper fires. But it denied aid for two more: the East Evans Creek and Rowe Creek complex fires.
At the time of the state’s request, FEMA’s release said, the Rowe Creek complex fire threatened homes in and around the communities of Prineville and Grizzly. The fire also threatened electrical infrastructure, the U.S. 26 corridor, recreational facilities, private communication infrastructure, and natural resources.
Last week, Oregon lawmakers, both state and federal, sharply criticized the decision to deny aid. In a statement, Rep. Emerson Levy, a Bend Democrat, and Rep. Vicki Breese-Iverson, a Prineville Republican, denounced the move.
“When disaster hits one part of Oregon, it hits all of us,” the two lawmakers wrote Thursday. “Central Oregon and every community battling these fires deserve the same support, the same urgency, and the same respect from the federal government. We stand together as a state, and we’re not going to stop pushing until every community gets the funding it needs.”
A day earlier, Oregon’s U.S. senators, Democrats Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, wrote to FEMA chief Robert Fenton, arguing that the two fires met the agency’s benchmarks for federal funding.
The FEMA grants cover up to 75% of a state’s firefighting costs for blazes that threaten to become major disasters. The funding can be used for field camps, equipment use, materials, supplies, mobilization and demobilization and other activities.
As of Sunday morning, wildfires had burned nearly 2 million acres in Oregon.
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