Ruch, Ore. ? When lightning struck southwestern Oregon last summer, Steve Baker could smell the smoke within hours from his house on a wooded ridge overlooking the Applegate Valley.

Firefighters managed to keep Baker’s home from being consumed. “I absolutely 100 percent feel if the firefighters weren’t here, it would have burned down,” he said.

He may not be so lucky this summer.

Due to sharp reductions in the state budget, the Oregon Department of Forestry begins this year’s fire season facing a 22 percent spending cut. That means fewer firefighting crews, fire lookouts, fire engines and helicopters for the quick response that makes the difference between a small fire and a raging inferno.

Oregon’s dilemma is being played out across the West, where continuing drought is expected to once again produce tinder-dry forests with no sympathy for economic recession or tight budgets.

Computer models predict the cuts will mean spending more than $11 million extra to fight big fires that get out of control and the loss of $22 million worth of resources, such as timber, wildlife habitat and outdoor recreation.

“So it’s pay now or pay later,” said Bill Lafferty, Oregon’s fire program manager. “All you can look at is historical averages. And last year was far beyond any historical average we’ve experienced.”

Around the West, other states are taking a hard look at their firefighting budgets. While Colorado has an $850 million state budget gap to plug, Rich Homann, supervisor of the state Fire Division, doesn’t anticipate any cuts to the firefighting budget after 915,000 acres and 235 homes burned last summer.

But California and Washington are cutting.

In Washington, the governor’s budget proposal would slice 15 percent from the $29 million firefighting budget, parking 21 of the state’s 113 wildland fire engines, and idling 230 firefighters.

“We are clearly putting people’s land, property and potentially people in harm’s way,” said Washington State Forester Pat McElroy. “It’s tough choice time.”

Steve and Dawn Baker pose with their daughter, Sydney, on the deck of their home outside Ruch, Ore. Last July, the Squires Peak fire twice came close to burning down their home. Cuts to the Oregon state budget mean fewer firefighters and less equipment this summer for the Oregon Department of Forestry, diminishing its ability to catch small fires before they turn into big fires.

In California, Gov. Gray Davis spared the state Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention deep cuts, but firefighting still must shave $1.7 million from a $500 million budget.

To make up the difference, California is closing two air tanker bases and staffing 22 northern California fire lookouts only during emergencies.

In Oregon, a complex system of matching funds — from private timberland owners, federal funds and other sources — means that cutting state spending by $3.4 million means cutting the firefighting budget $8.9 million.

The department figures the cuts are forcing state forestry districts 15 percent to 30 percent below their most efficient level of firefighting for the 16 million acres they protect — more than half the state.

Getting taxpayers to pay more is a tough sell, even for Baker, who fled his home with his wife, Dawn, as fire bore down. They both voted against a temporary tax increase to prevent state budget cuts, but voted in favor of funding their local fire department.

“I don’t see a reason to spend millions of dollars fighting a fire,” said Steve Baker. “I almost think the landowner needs to take more responsibility. The money should be spent on structure protection.”