The costs of the major wildfires burning around northern Nevada are adding up.
As of Wednesday night, the three wildfires burning around the Reno-Sparks area have cost more than $1.2 million to fight.
The Truckee Fire tops the list at a $600,000 cost, followed by the Earthstone and Winnemucca Ranch fires at $300,000 apiece.
So when it's all said and done, who foots the bill?
"Ultimately it's the taxpayers," Great Basin Incident Management Team Public Information Officer Mark Regan said. "Now, whose budget it comes out of is all based on the cost-share agreements between the people that are fighting the fire and the people that own the land."
Regan said that means that all the agencies who fought the fire will get together and figure out the final costs and who pays them, after the fact. So far, they've had all the local agencies, plus crews from Oregon, Utah, Idaho, California, and Arizona coming in to help.
The costs will be high, but local officials said they do budget for this.
"{These are} natural disasters that the city has to be prepared for," Sparks City Council Member Charlene Bybee said. "We have to deal with {them} as they come. We can't predict them, and we budget accordingly, and then have to step back sometimes and look at reallocating funds if we need to."
In cases like this it's not unusual for the state or the local jurisdictions to declare a state of emergency. That would free up federal funding to help with the cost. So far, we have not heard whether anyone plans to take that step.
