SALEM — Oregon lawmakers have approved money to start paying wildfire costs and helping homeowners rebuild, add workers to process unemployment claims and update technology and expand capacity for coronavirus testing.

They did so Friday, Sept. 25, during an Emergency Board meeting that lasted more than three hours.

The board’s 20 members handle budget matters between sessions of the full Oregon Legislature.

Though the board has met monthly since the 2020 session adjourned March 5 — and twice in August — the Sept. 25 session was the first after the board committed all of Oregon’s $1.4 billion share of federal pandemic aid under the CARES Act.

The board enabled the Oregon Department of Forestry to tap $75 million, instead of the original $20 million, to start paying suppression costs of the wildfires that have swept through about 1 million acres of forests since Labor Day. As many as three dozen fires burned at once across Oregon.

Recent rains have helped firefighters make gains. But according to the agency, six major fires — each 100,000 acres or greater — continued to burn as of Sept. 25 at varying degrees of containment. The official death toll is nine.