Wildfire Costs - Central Coast News KION/KCBA

Already this year there have been over a thousand wildfires across the state and with the economy still struggling, and the state budget a bit wobbly we looked into the money it costs to keep Californians safe, and wildfires under control.

California has an emergency fund that helps pay for costs incurred from wild fires. Cal fire refers to it as the E Fund and this year $178 million were put aside to pay for wildfire emergencies. Two months into the fiscal year and money has already been spent $106.5 million.

Cal Fire told us, it's not concerned about running out of money yet because it's still early in the year. Fires like the Lockheed, Bryson, Gloria, and Station have racked up quite the tab even the 49 Fire in placer county- which only lasted one day coast $1.1 million.

"Your aircraft, your personnel, brining in rental equipment so we can set up a city to take care of 2,000 firefighters we have to have some of those items to do our job, areas where we can be very frugal and monitor that we do," said Julie Hutchinson with Cal Fire.

Cal Fire is now starting to tally up the costs for last months Lockheed fire. It burned more than 7,500 acres in Santa Cruz County, about $28 million were spent.