SALEM – The Legislature’s interim budget committee didn’t just focus on dousing fiscal fires Friday – lawmakers also hope they’ve reduced the potential danger from real ones.

The Legislative Emergency Board gave the green light to spending $500,000 to secure contracts for a tanker airplane and helicopters for the Oregon Department of Forestry, and it also boosted the number of people who are working to protect property where civilization meets the forest.

Last summer, several smaller fires were kept in check because of a quick-strike philosophy and early use of aerial water drops.

The total acreage burned in 2003 – roughly 9,700 acres – was far below the 10-year average, said Department of Forestry spokesman Rod Nichols.

The state protects about 16 million acres statewide, with 5.5 million of those on the east side of the Cascades.

The overall state cost for firefighting in 2003 was $9.7 million, a fraction of the $49.7 million spent in the catastrophic 2002 season, the worst on record, he said.

Sen. Kurt Schrader, D-Canby, said the investment in a plane saved the state money later.

”This shows that some government spending is a good idea,” he said. ”This program saved Oregon’s bacon last year because of lower insurance for taxpayers and lower landowners’ costs.”

Tanker planes are in short supply at the peak of the fire season, which means the state in the past needed to wait in line for aircraft to become available.

The standby tanker will be based in Medford starting in August, while the helicopters would be scattered across the state. The plane would come from Alaska, where the fire season is already winding down by that time, Nichols said.

Rep. Tim Knopp, R-Bend, who also sits on the influential 17-member E-Board, said the state doesn’t espouse a philosophy to just let fires burn.

”It isn’t just public lands that are at stake, those are public dollars burning up that could go to education and transportation,” he said.

With that in mind, lawmakers also approved shuffling of jobs inside the forestry department to put a higher priority on plans to reduce fuel loads in the state’s forestland-urban interface zones.

Officials also expect to tap into new federal funds to help pay for the work.

The state is in the process of designating some 32,000 parcels in Deschutes County as either ”high” or ”extreme” risk from forest fires, said Brian Ballou at the Prineville office of the Department of Forestry.

Depending on their risk level, property owners will be required to remove fuels like branches, wood piles and dry grass and create defensible space that would extend from 30 to 100 feet around their homes or other structures.

Gary Marshall, Deputy Bend Fire Chief and a member of a state work group that’s monitoring the urban interface plans, said structures with a defensible perimeter have an 80 percent chance of surviving a wildfire.

In addition, the areas provide a safer place for fire personnel if they are fighting fires in developments, he said.

Currently, two forestry workers are overseeing the interface mapping effort – but there is more work than they can handle in Deschutes and Jackson counties alone, Ballou said.

The E-Board clearance Friday will add two more, but with no additional taxes.

The new staff will help expand the program to 12 additional counties including Crook, Jefferson, Klamath, and Wasco.

A public hearing at 6:30 p.m. on April 28 at Summit High School will gather feedback about the proposed fire designations in Deschutes County, said Ballou, of the Forestry Department.

James Sinks can be reached at 503-566-2839 or at jamess@cyberis.net.