Thirteen days of anxiety for Foresthill-area residents ended Monday after the U.S. Forest Service announced the fast-moving Ralston fire was contained.
But containment came at a cost.
Taxpayers will foot a bill of at least $13.1 million to cover the efforts of more than 1,300 firefighting personnel.
The Tahoe and Eldorado national forests took a hit, too, as the fire consumed 8,423 scenic acres.
To the relief of residents and firefighters, the fire's total impact included zero burned homes and outbuildings -- out of almost 500 threatened -- and only five minor injuries to firefighters.
"For the most part, everything went really well," said Placer County supervisor Bruce Kranz, whose district includes Foresthill. "(Residents) wouldn't have put up signs all over the community thanking firefighters if that hadn't been the case."
Kranz, who said he monitored the fire's progress closely, ran into some constituents Monday who conveyed that a sense of normalcy was returning as fire danger diminished.
"I asked them, 'How's everything?' " Kranz recalled.
"They said, 'Everything's going good. The smoke has cleared away, and we're happy it's done.' "
On Monday, firefighters continued to put out smoldering hot spots and some fires within the containment lines, but the tamed blaze had nowhere else to go, officials said.
Investigators are still trying to determine what caused the fire to ignite Sept. 5 near an area known as Ralston, about 10 miles east of Foresthill.
Efforts to battle the blaze were severely hampered by the area's topography, which included steep, forested canyons filled with fuels preheated by warm temperatures.
"It's such steep terrain," said Barbara Rebiskie, fire prevention officer for the Eldorado National Forest. "It was a fast and furious fire."
But for the challenge Mother Nature extended firefighters, she gave them a break. High winds expected last week never materialized, Rebiskie said, allowing firefighters to claim the upper hand.
"They just did an awesome job out there," she said.
U.S. Forest Service officials could not be reached for an explanation of the $13.1 million price tag.
However, typical costs associated with fighting forest fires include overtime pay, food and lodging for firefighters; fuel and retardant for aircraft; and overhead costs such as running a fire information center, said Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
"It's a huge operation," he said.
The CDF assisted in the Ralston fire, but Berlant said he could not comment on that fire's total cost.
He could speak only about costs previously incurred by the CDF -- which amounted to about $662 per acre burned in CDF-controlled fires in 2005.
The Ralston fire, in comparison, so far has amounted to about $1,555 per acre burned.
Berlant acknowledged that firefighting can be a costly venture -- particularly when air support is strongly relied upon, as it was in the Ralston blaze.
However, he said there are savings to be considered, too.
"People's houses and people's lives are irreplaceable," Berlant said.
"Sometimes it takes a high dollar amount to protect these things."
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