Senator Catherine Cortez Masto wants the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reconsider a decision to deny Nevada’s application for a fire assistance management grant.
The Reno Gazette-Journal reportsthat the grant would have helped to offset costs of the South Sugarloaf Fire in northeastern Nevada, which has burned an area about four-fifths as large as Los Angeles.
On August 25, FEMA rejected the state’s application because, in the agency’s words, the fire “did not threaten such destruction as would constitute a major disaster.”
The rejection has also drawn criticism from Senator Dean Heller and Representative Mark Amodei, in addition to Masto.
She said fires in rural areas of the state are overlooked because it is difficult to calculate the economic losses tied to wildfires on public land.