Counties and local fire departments on South Dakota prairies can get help from the state in fighting fires through a new fund approved by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Mike Rounds.

Under HB1071, signed by Rounds earlier this month, a state fire fund will pay costs incurred by the state Division of Wildland Fire Suppression in battling both forest fires and emergency rangeland fires. Emergency rangeland fires are defined in the bill as those outside the Black Hills Forest Fire Protection District that the governor declares as an emergency and that the state fire division helps suppress.

Many rural fire departments already can get assistance from other fire departments through mutual aid agreements, but when a fire gets beyond their capacity, the new law gives the state the ability to help put out the fire, according to George Williams, deputy secretary of agriculture.

Previously, such efforts were made through the state Office of Emergency Management, although the ag department also was involved, Williams said. "It was a duplication of efforts," he said. The state agencies agreed to shift responsibility for such aid to the state Wildland Fire Division, he said.

State Wildland Fire Coordinator Joe Lowe said the change streamlines the process.

The fund also would pay:

* Costs incurred by the governor in authorizing fire-prevention measures

* Costs incurred by the secretary of agriculture in hiring firefighting forces to assist any other fire-suppression agency, regardless of whether the fire is within the state borders, assuming the agency has an agreement with the South Dakota Department of Agriculture

Lowe said the state will join the effort on a fire if a county has exhausted its resources. The state can then bring in airplanes, hand crews, fire engines, bulldozers and fire managers, Lowe said. All costs will be paid from the state fire fund.

Williams said there is no funding mechanism for the fire fund, but the Legislature will appropriate money for fire costs from the year before.

Pennington County Fire Coordinator Denny Gorton praised the new law. "The bill certainly does give state wildland fire the authority to come out and assist the local departments, which will only be a benefit," Gorton said.

Gorton said huge prairie fires, like those seen in the past few years, can quickly use up resources, especially in small counties.

Gorton said another state program, to reimburse volunteer fire departments for 90 percent of their firefighting costs, was prompted by prairie fires that burned more than 150,000 acres in 2006.

Kristi Turman, director of the state Office of Emergency Management, said her office will again administer the 90-10 reimbursement program aimed at keeping small rural fire departments financially afloat when they face huge blazes. The reimbursement requires a declaration of emergency from the governor, Turman said.

"We were seeing fire departments responding to multiple outbreaks and sometimes using up their fuel budget in one fire response," Turman said this week. They also wore out or damaged tires, pumps and hoses quickly in the big fires of 2006.

In such cases, the state reimburses the local department for 90 percent of its fuel and equipment costs.

Marty Hanson, chief of the Philip Volunteer Fire Department, is grateful for the 90-10 program, especially during the 2006 fire season. "That saved three-fourths or all of the small volunteer fire departments West River," he said.

Contact Steve Miller at 394-8417 or steve.miller@rapidcityjournal.com