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Article: U.S. Forest Service Is Often Unable to Recoup Forest-Fire Costs.
- Article from:
- The Denver Post (Denver, CO)
- Article date:
- November 10, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Denver Post. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: David Migoya
Nov. 10--The U.S. Forest Service has been unable to collect millions of dollars from people and companies blamed for wildfires, often taking years to get a fraction of what is owed.
The agency has billed nearly $38 million since 1996 in an attempt to recover the cost of fighting 75 wildfires in a nine-state area that includes Colorado, federal records show.
It has collected just $4.5 million -- less than 12 cents for every dollar billed, according to records from the Forest Service's claims office in Ogden, Utah.
The recovery rate is even worse for 15 Colorado wildfires the agency has tried to collect on in the ...