Wildfire: Demonstrating The Cost-Effectiveness Of Mitigation

If you live in the western United States, the 2020 wildfire season has probably felt even more intense than the previous record-breaking seasons of 2017 or 2018. The sheer scale of the events this year has broken new records.

The August Complex Fire in Northern California, triggered by an unprecedented outburst of dry lightning in mid-August, became the first “gigafire” (over a million acres burned) in the modern history of the state, according to CAL FIRE. The containment of this fire went on into October.

CAL FIRE and the U.S Forestry Service called this year the largest wildfire season in terms of acres burned in California with 4.17 million acres burned as of November 29.

In addition, five out of the 10 largest California wildfires happened this year. From what was a relatively quiet wildfire season in 2019, we have returned to what feels like “business as usual” with this year’s record-breaker wildfire season.

Three significant wildfire seasons in the last four years has created an insurance crisis across several states.