Brewer Appeals Disaster Denial For Yarnell Fire

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer is appealing denial of disaster assistance from the federal government for the wildfire that killed 19 firefighters and destroyed more than 100 homes in Yarnell in June.

The governor on Wednesday said that the uninsured damage has gone up and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency didn’t take into account the high number of poor and elderly residents when it denied the disaster declaration request last month.

FEMA told Brewer in its denial letter that the damage to uninsured private homes was not so severe that state, local and volunteer agencies couldn’t handle the problems.

Brewer says nine of the 108 destroyed homes were uninsured, and that 17 were underinsured.