Analysis: The growing economic cost of wildfires
Wildfires in the wilderness are part of the ecological cycle. Wildfires in ‘not-so-wild’ places are not, however, and are called Wildland/Urban Interface (WUI) fires. These have been increasing in both frequency and intensity. For example, 2018 was the most destructive and costly fire season in California history. As shown in Table 1, the state’s top three wildfires that year exceeded $10 billion U.S. in financial losses.