Feds to reimburse Grant County $80K for 2024 fire expenses

Published 6:00 am Friday, August 1, 2025

CANYON CITY — Grant County has received the first of three federal reimbursements for expenses during the 2024 Falls and Battle Mountain Complex fires.

The reimbursements come to the county via the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Public Assistance Program, which provides supplemental grants to state, tribal, territorial and local governments, and certain types of private nonprofits so communities can quickly respond to and recover from major disasters or emergencies. The Falls and Battle Mountain Complex fires met the standard to be eligible for reimbursements under the program.

The funds reimburse what Grant County and partners that assisted the county spent reacting to and fighting the two fires.

“We had a couple different sheriff’s offices and deputies over here and we can recoup some of those costs,” Grant County Emergency Management Coordinator Eric Bush said.

Bush said there are limits to what FEMA deems eligible for reimbursement. For example, FEMA will only reimburse expenses within specific time windows and reimburse overtime hours directly related to a specific event but will not reimburse regular wages.

Grant County is eligible for 75% of the $106,079.21, or $80,046.91 in eligible expenditures from the Falls and Battle Mountain Complex fires. The first of those reimbursements was just less than $14,000 and came in Thursday, July 31.

“The rest of it — we expect to see it, barring some unforeseen circumstance at the federal level in the next two to three months,” Bush said.

The process for receiving reimbursements through FEMA is onerous and requires meticulous record keeping from the beginning of a disaster, whether or not eligibility for reimbursement is certain. Bush added understanding FEMA’s system beforehand, planning and being prepared to resource emergency operation during a disaster are key to maximizing eligible reimbursements.

Bush said the biggest challenge is there is only one person doing emergency management in Grant County. That dynamic leads to having to hire somebody and rapidly train them or hiring an expert who may not be familiar with the county during a disaster.

Bush said the reimbursement of these funds from FEMA is important because without them, it would be up to taxpayers to fill any gaps in the county’s budget that may crop up as a result of a disaster.

“It’s the responsibility of me and everybody who works for the government to protect tax dollars and keep track of that stuff as best we can,” Bush said.

Last year, wildfires burned 314,172 acres in Grant County — nearly 11% of the county’s total area. The Falls Fire burned 152,000 acres across Grant and Harney counties while the Battle Mountain Complex Fire torched 183,026 acres across Grant, Morrow and Umatilla counties.