This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A House committee approved and sent to the full House a bill that would change state tactics on wildfire prevention in an effort to reduce costs down the road.
Sen. Evan Vickers, R-Cedar City, said at the Friday meeting that SB122 will solve conflicts that exist in the current code and makes clear the role of state, county and local governments.
The funding for the proposed legislation is outlined in SB212, where more than $3.5 million has been requested from the state.
"But we know for every dollar ... we put into the program, we can reduce significantly over the lifetime," Vickers told the House Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee.
The bill would put the state in charge of covering costs from wildfires instead of counties, and counties and municipalities would be assessed based on a risk formula.
Vickers said in return, the state would require that the municipalities adopt protective ordinances, train their local firefighters in how to fight wildfires instead of just house fires and identify "critical areas" where they can minimize risk and contain fires.
There have been cases in the past where cities were unsure whether they should fight fires on or outside municipal borders, and Vickers said this bill clears that up.
"The bottom line is, if there's a fire, we want the closest accessible agency to go put it out," he said, "whether it's a local fire department, whether it's state or even if it's federal."
He said that although the state would foot the $3 million cost, the collective "work on the ground" done by individual municipalities is worth $4 million.
The Division of Forestry, Fires and State Lands, Utah Association of Counties and League of Cities and Towns all endorsed the bill.