OR Residents Files Claim for Damages when USFS Prescribed Fire Spread

A prescribed fire lit by employees of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest in mid-April burned onto a parcel of private property south of Phillips Reservoir, killing 16 pine trees and scorching the bark of about two dozen others.

The fire also damaged about 200 feet of fence, said Bud Zunino, who owns and lives on the 10-acre property just east of Hudspeth Lane, near the southwest corner of the reservoir about 20 miles from Baker City.

Flames spread over about one-quarter acre of Zunino’s property. Neither his home nor outbuildings were damaged.

The prescribed fire, part of an ongoing series of such burns on public land around the reservoir over the past several years, was ignited on April 16, said Zunino, a 62-year-old disabled Navy veteran who is retired and has lived on the property for 14 years.

According to the Wallowa-Whitman’s prescribed fire map, the burn area is just north of Zunino’s property, near the intersection of Hudspeth Lane and Forest Road 2220, which leads to Southwest Shore and Millers Lane campgrounds along the reservoir.

On the afternoon of April 17, Zunino, who was out of town, said he got a call from a neighbor who said the fire had crossed onto Zunino’s property.

Zunino said neighbors later told him that there were smoldering areas, including open flames, near the property boundary on the evening of April 16.

In an email response to questions from the Baker City Herald, the Office of Communications and Community Engagement at the Forest Service’s regional office in Portland stated: “On the afternoon of April 17, 2025 firefighters patrolling the prescribed burn responded to a 1/4 acre area where the fire had moved outside of the burn unit. The agency is working with the landowner to address the damages that resulted.”

Zunino said he met with local Forest Service officials who initially told him the agency would compensate him for damages.

But soon after, he said, an official told him he would have to file a claim.

Zunino said he talked with a Forest Service official in Albuquerque, New Mexico, who sent him the claim forms.

He said the Forest Service has two years to decide whether to approve his claim.

That’s frustrating, Zunino said.

“I’ve done nothing to cause this,” he said. “Now they expect me to jump through the hoops.”

Zunino said he and his wife, Beth, devote dozens of hours each year to raking up pine needles and doing other work to reduce the fire risk on their property.

“I’ve removed all the ground fuels,” he said.

Zunino contends Forest Service workers should have sprayed water on his property, which is on a hill above where the prescribed fire was started.

He said his insurance company might compensate him for the value of the burned trees, but he’s concerned his premium cost will rise.

He said a representative from his insurance company, USAA, which serves military members and veterans, told him the company had dealt with damage claims with the Forest Service and that the process likely will take longer than two years to resolve.

Zunino said he is considering filing an action against the Forest Service in small claims court.

“I think this kind of lack of accountability is frustrating,” he said.