Farmer repays state

OLYMPIA – A wheat farmer near Waitsburg, Wash., has reimbursed the state and property owners more than $1 million for a wheat stubble field fire that burned about 5,000 acres of timber, brush, grass and farm fields, the state Department of Natural Resources said Monday.

The unidentified farmer reimbursed the state $674,000 through his insurer for fire suppression costs in the so-called North Coppei Fire, which started about five miles northeast of Waitsburg on Sept. 18, 2001.

The farmer and his insurer also paid out more than $350,000 in other third-party property damage claims resulting from the fire, the DNR said in a news release.