Washington Code 76.04.486 – Escaped slash burns — Obligations
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(1) All personnel and equipment required by the burning permit issued for a slash burn may be required by the department, at the permittee’s expense, for suppression of a fire resulting from the slash burn until the fire is declared out by the department. In no case may the permittee provide less than one suitable bulldozer and five persons capable of taking suppression action. In addition, if a slash burn becomes an uncontrolled fire the department may recover from the landowner the actual costs incurred in suppressing the fire. The amount collected from the landowner shall be limited to and calculated at the rate of one dollar per acre for the landowner’s total forestlands protected by the department, up to a maximum charge of fifty thousand dollars per escaped slash burn.
Terms Used In Washington Code 76.04.486
- Department: means the department of natural resources, or its authorized representatives, as defined in chapter 43. See Washington Code 76.04.005
- Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
- Slash: means organic forest debris such as tree tops, limbs, brush, and other dead flammable material remaining on forestland as a result of a landowner operation. See Washington Code 76.04.005
- Suppression: means all activities involved in the containment and control of forest fires, including the patrolling thereof until such fires are extinguished or considered by the department to pose no further threat to life or property. See Washington Code 76.04.005
(2) The landowner contingency forest fire suppression account shall be used to pay and the permittee shall not be responsible for fire suppression expenditures greater than fifty thousand dollars or the total amount calculated for forestlands owned as determined in subsection (1) of this section for each escaped slash burn.
(3) All expenses incurred in suppressing a fire resulting from a slash burn in which negligence was involved shall be the obligation of the landowner.
[ 1986 c 100 § 32.]