Marines get $10 million bill for Sierra fire

The Marine Corps has received a $10 million bill for costs of putting out a nearly 23,000-acre Sierra Nevada wildfire -- a firefighting effort that took the lives of three airtanker crew members.

The U.S. Forest Service confirmed Wednesday that the cost estimate of the June 2002 "Cannon" fire near Walker, Calif., went to the Marines, who run a mountain warfare training base in the fire area.

The Associated Press has learned that the Marines balked at paying the $10 million, and that has resulted in negotiations to determine how much they'll pay.

Forest Service spokeswoman Erin O'Connor, based in Ogden, Utah, confirmed that the negotiations are underway.

"The Forest Service has initiated a conversation regarding the allocation of costs for the fire suppression activities and for the rehabilitation of the land and restoration costs," O'Connor said.

"It's a discussion, so where we end up when the conversation is over remains to be seen."

The Marine Corps is "working with the U.S. Forest Service to resolve this issue in a timely and equitable manner," 1st Lt. Daniel G. Rawson said in an e-mail response from Camp Pendleton, Calif., the Marine base that oversees the mountain training facility.

Negotiators are focused on interagency agreements between the Marines and the Forest Service, which were drawn up because the Marines' Pickel Meadows base is on Toiyabe National Forest land.

The Forest Service says the agreements say in part that the Department of Defense will pay the Forest Service for any costs directly attributable to military training in the area -- subject to available funds.

The Marines also agreed to comply with rules governing national forest lands and to take "all reasonable steps and precautions" to avoid causing wildfires, and to take "immediate and sustained action" to suppress any fires.

Besides the dispute over costs, the U.S. Department of Justice is reviewing the Forest Service's report on the cause of the fire. That review is being handled by attorneys in the agency's Sacramento, Calif., office.

Christie Kalkowski, spokeswoman for the Forest Service office in Reno, said the report was turned over by the agency's law enforcement section in December.

"They do this any time the fire is believed to be human-caused," Kalkowski added.

No details of the Forest Service report have been released. Also, no details have been released on the Marines' separate investigation into the cause of the fire.

The fire broke out in an area where dozens of practice campfires had been set by Marine mountain warfare trainees, who were going through an 18-day survival course.

Marine spokesmen said the trainees tried to put out the wildfire but had to pull back as it started to spread rapidly. Four days later, a C-130A tanker plane battling the blaze crashed, killing the three crew members.