Foundation being set up to allocate East Fork Fire donations

A local has started a foundation as a way to distribute money that had been donated in the last few months to people who’d been affected by or involved with the East Fork Fire.

Arlene Rice of Havre said she started the Hill-Blaine County Fire Foundation and is waiting for 501(c)(3) nonprofit designation approval. She anticipates to have everything completed within the next few days, she said.

She would not comment on how much money had been donated to the different local accounts, but she said that “not one dime” of it had been allocated. The nonprofit will consolodate those funds and people will receive every cent of it.

Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson said the allocating process will require people to apply for money from this fund.

During and after the nearly 22,000-acre fire, several fundraising efforts had been set up to help landowners whose lives were touched by the flames of a fire that, at one point, reached number eight in national priority.