Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 6, 1993 TAG: 9305060258
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL E. RUANE KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: SCRANTON, PA. LENGTH: Medium
By the time he pulled his big tan rig over, the fire had spread from the car's blown right rear tire and was engulfing the car. Howard, 67, just had time to unhook the motor home and move it clear.
He and his wife, Jeanne, who had turned 70 the day before, then stood in the 90-degree heat of the Idaho summer and watched their gray Honda burn up.
That was enough to ruin any vacation. But little did the Howards know that their barbecued car was only the beginning.
For in the distance, around a bend in the road, a pall of smoke was rising from the drought-parched underbrush. Debris from the burning Honda apparently had ignited a fire that soon would scorch 6,258 acres - and require hundreds of firefighters, six aircraft, several bulldozers and four days to control.
Worse was to come. A few months after the retired couple returned to their home in a rural township east of Scranton last July, they received a fat letter from the state of Idaho. Payment was demanded for fighting the fire.
The bill?
In the end it would come to: $1,313,105.10.
"My God," Jeanne Howard thought when she read that first letter. Her husband, a World War II Marine Corps aviator, thought he was being made out a criminal. She has a bad back and high blood pressure; he has emphysema and has been treated for prostate cancer.
With insurance that covered about a quarter of the fee, they hoped for some compromise and wondered what to do.
But Idaho has been adamant. It wants the money and has filed suit to collect. The Howards "willfully and negligently" started the fire, the lawsuit says. It says their car spewed sparks and burning rubber for seven miles, igniting the roadside grass along the way.
Year after year, Idaho officials say, the state shells out millions of dollars to fight wildfires started by careless people. Like other states, Idaho has a law that allows it to collect restitution for such expenses. But this is believed to be the largest bill that Idaho ever has tried to collect, officials said.
Whatever the cost, if those responsible don't pay, "the taxpayers of the state will pay," said Idaho Deputy Attorney General Stephanie A. Balzarini.
Depositions are scheduled for later this month. A trial has been set this fall in Boise, the state capital.
The Howards got home from the trip about the end of July. They had little clue that they would be billed for putting out the forest fire. State officials had been kind and cordial as the couple got things straightened out and then left Idaho. The only hint was when someone asked about their insurance coverage.
Months passed. In early October, Jeanne Howard got a phone call. It was from a TV station in Boise, she recalls. Had the Howards received a bill for the fire?
"No," she replied, "we haven't gotten any bill." Well, the station said, "We understand you will be receiving one."
A few days later, on a Monday morning, they did. She sat on the couch and opened the letter. "There it was," she said. The letter noted that this was just an initial tabulation. The fee actually would double later.
But the opening breakdown was: $19,793.17 for personnel; $4,625.44 for operating supplies; $122,466.13 for equipment rental; and $545,711.07 for U.S. Forest Service assistance. Total: $692,595.81.
The letter was signed "cordially" by an Idaho forestry official.
The Howards were stunned. "What am I going to do?" Frederick Howard asked himself. "I could sell every bloody thing I got, and I couldn't pay that bill." Insurance policies covered up to $350,000.
The couple has spent much of the intervening months fretting. They fear losing all they own. "They'll take everything we got," he said.
He does not believe he was negligent. "I didn't feel that I willfully did it," he said. "And I didn't feel that I was negligent because I had a flat tire. . . . If I'd have seen that tire was flat, I'd have stopped. That's common sense. Unless I'm an idiot, I would stop."
They also are distressed that they must endure such controversy at this stage of their lives. "They're, like, criminalizing me - like I went out there and took a match and burnt their damn forest down," Howard said.
"It just bugs me," he said. "Here you are: You're 67 years old. You're retired. Your income is set. You're doing pretty good. You're coasting along. You can enjoy life. And all of a sudden, boy, they come along here and . . . they can ruin . . . both our lives."
The waiting and worrying have not stopped their traveling. They recently returned from several months on the road in the motor home. And they have another trip set for September.
"I just hope that it gets over with, so we know what we're going to have left and continue down the road," Howard said.
That is the life they love, they say - out on the highway, seeing the sights and taking care, as truckers joke about the possibility of overturning, to "always keep the greasy side down."
by CNB