Reimbursement Sought In Debris Fire

The bills continue to pile up for Archie Crippen Excavation, Fresno, Calif., with a state environmental agency now asking for an estimated $750,000 in firefighting costs plus an unspecified additional amount -- possibly in the millions -- for a cleanup at the site of his month-long debris pile fire in southwest Fresno.

The latest demand from the California Integrated Waste Management Board was contained in a Fresno County Superior Court lawsuit filed recently. It was preceded by a demand from the city of Fresno for $607,000 to cover its own firefighting costs.

City officials have estimated that the eventual costs may reach $4.5 million for the Crippen fire and its cleanup. The fire started Jan. 11 in an immense pile of debris from demolished buildings and other sources; it burned for a month, cloaking parts of the metropolitan area in harsh smoke for days at a time.

Crippen's attorney, Edwin A. Oeser, said his client had not yet been notified of the lawsuit and, in any case, was busy preparing for a mid-April hearing before the city Planning Commission, which is considering an appeal of the city's order revoking Crippen's land-use permits.

"We need to fight that battle first and worry about this one later," Oeser said.

If the city's permit action is not overturned, he said, Crippen will be unable to operate even those portions of his business -- a concrete and asphalt recycling facility and a public truck scale -- that were not directly involved in the fire.

"If that happens," Oeser added, "the chances of them being able to recover any money at all will be greatly diminished."

Integrated Waste Management Board officials declined to comment on their lawsuit, which asks for both reimbursement of firefighting and other costs, as well as an injunction forcing Crippen to "abate the pile and the effects of the fire."

Previously, the board had sent Crippen a bill for $580,000, although officials said at the time that the eventual bill for firefighting alone was likely to reach $700,000 to $750,000.

In the lawsuit, the board said that it has spent "approximately $750,000 from the Solid Waste Cleanup Trust Fund to provide expertise, manpower and equipment to assist in controlling the fire."

"Everybody's asking for money," Oeser said. "The city wants $607,000; the state wants $700,000 to $800,000; and that's just for firefighting costs. Can you imagine what the cleanup and abatement is going to cost?"

The federal Environmental Protection Agency now appears poised to make its own request for reimbursement. Crippen said that he received a letter Wednesday from the agency, which said that it wanted to assess his ability to repay its costs.

Among other things, Crippen said, the agency asked him for copies of income tax returns for the past five years.