City enters wildland fire agreement with state

25 October 2021

Published by https://www.highlandnews.net/

USA – The Highland City Council voted unanimously for the city to enter a $47,389.57 Wildland Protection Agreement (WPA) with state of California, an insurance policy for state fire services in open space areas in Highland.

The WPA will cover all fire suppression costs for fires within 1,261 acres of designated open space on the east side of Highland. These services will include full wildfire response, including aircraft response, hand crews and dozers.

These services will now be provided by Cal Fire on behalf of the state. The city contracts with Cal Fire for city fire services, and, in the past, Cal Fire responded to these fires on behalf of the city but the state had not invoiced the city for the wildland fires.

According to a city staff report, the city was informed that moving forward the city would be invoiced for all costs associated with wildland fires in Highland unless they approved a WPA.

According to the report, the city has experienced multiple wildland fires within the WPA area in the past three years, including the Bridge Fire near the Old Iron Bridge on Greenspot Road in July 2017, the King Fire near the east end of Base Line in August 2018 and the Mentone Fire on Greenspot Road at Newport Avenue in October 2020.