Infographic: Wildfire

Published: Dec. 1, 2017

Getting Worse

Wildfires are growing more destructive in the United States, especially but not only in the American West. In 2015, a record 10 million U.S. acres burned, including tens of thousands in Colorado. Tennessee experienced one of its worst wildfires in 2016.

The blazes will likely become more costly in the U.S. and abroad, according to Michael Kodas, associate director of CU Boulder’s Center for Environmental Journalism and author of the new book Megafire. In one recent year, 75 million acres burned in Russia alone.

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Wildfire Facts

$3 billion
average annual amount U.S. governement spent on wildfires in decade before 2013, up from $1 billion in 1990s.
19 firefighters
killed in Yarnell Hill Fire, southwest of Prescott, Ariz., June 30, 2013
78 days longer
annual wilfire season in western U.S., 2015 vs. 1970
44 million
U.S. homes located near "fire-prone open space"

“The biggest and baddest of them are still to come.” — Michael Kodas

Major Factors Contributing to Wildfires: