Guest Opinion: Washington state needs a fund for wildfire victims like me

By Melissa Hunter

On Aug. 18, 2023, the Gray fire tore through Medical Lake. In a matter of hours, our home on the land where I lived my entire life was reduced to ash. When I heard about the fire, I raced home from work. By the time I arrived, I had less than five minutes. I barely escaped with our dog.

Everything else – the photos of my kids, the mementos from my own childhood – was gone. Those things aren’t replaceable.

We lost more than possessions. I inhaled so much smoke that I developed sarcoidosis, a condition causing swollen lumps to form in my lungs and requiring steroids and inhalers just to get through the day. I’ve also been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Sometimes I wake up in a panic, convinced the flames are coming back.

Two years before the fire, our insurance company dropped our wildfire coverage. To keep it, they quoted us a premium that was higher than our monthly mortgage payment. We simply couldn’t afford it. Like many families in Washington, we had to roll the dice and hope we would be lucky. We weren’t.

Since the fire, the financial strain has been overwhelming. I’ve had to take a different job assignment for less pay because my health can’t handle the stress or the hours I used to keep. I drained my retirement savings just to stay afloat. We borrowed money from my parents – something I never thought I’d have to do at my age. We now live in a smaller house, and my home office doubles as my stepson’s bedroom. It’s cramped, it’s humbling and it’s not the life we imagined for ourselves.

Investigators found that sparks from electrical equipment owned by Inland Power & Light caused the fire. The Department of Natural Resources says it spent $3.4 million fighting a fire that could have been prevented if Inland Power & Light had properly maintained its equipment.

Everyone makes mistakes, but instead of helping the people harmed by its alleged negligence, the utility is fighting in court to avoid accountability.

And now, to add insult to literal injury, utilities are lobbying for immunity from being held accountable when their recklessness or negligence causes a fire, meaning that families like mine will have no recourse. They’ve already succeeded in Idaho, Utah and Wyoming.

That makes me furious. It turns survivors into permanent victims, unable to seek justice or rebuild.

It’s also unacceptably dangerous. If utilities can’t be held accountable for causing fires, they will have no financial incentive to make changes and implement practices that prevent and mitigate wildfires, meaning we will all be at much greater risk.

But there’s another way. Washington should establish a Wildfire Victims Fund – funded primarily from utilities – so survivors like me can receive economic justice if a utility starts a fire through its negligence.

I am not looking for sympathy. I am writing this because what happened to me is not unique. Hundreds of families lost their homes in the Gray fire. Thousands more across Washington are living one spark on a dry day away from disaster. Insurance is more costly and difficult to obtain than ever. Many of those who are able to obtain insurance are woefully underinsured when a wildfire disaster strikes.

We need a fair system that acknowledges this reality. A Washington Wildfire Victims Fund will provide survivors with a path to rebuild their lives. It will also hold utilities accountable by requiring them to help pay for the fund – while providing them with protection against bankruptcy so that they can continue to provide power and other critical services to residents at reasonable rates. It’s like requiring utilities to buy catastrophic insurance. A Wildfire Victims Fund will also incentivize and require utilities to take actions that will prevent and mitigate wildfires. This model is providing economic justice for victims in California. There is no excuse not to adopt it here.

My family has already lost too much. I’ve lost my home, my health, my savings and a sense of safety I’ll probably never get back. I cannot live with a system that ignores families like mine and puts the interests of utilities that start fires above justice for victims.

Lawmakers have a choice in the coming months. They can side with powerful utilities, or they can side with ordinary Washington families who just want a fair chance to recover after disaster.

For the sake of every future survivor, I hope they choose us.

Melissa Hunter lives in Medical Lake. She lost her home in the Gray fire in 2023.