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REPORT SUMMARY
Driven by a historically destructive California wildfire, 22 large-loss fires last year resulted in 52 deaths, 233 injuries, and an estimated $12.5 billion in direct property losses
NFPA reports annually on large-loss fires and explosions that occurred in the United States the previous year. Those fires are defined as events that result in property damage of at least $10 million. There were 22 such fires in 2017, resulting in a total of over $12.54 billion in direct property losses.
In order to compare losses over the past 10 years, we adjust losses for inflation to 2008 dollars. When adjusted for inflation, the number of fires in 2017 that would have been categorized as large-loss fires-that is, fires resulting in a loss of $10 million in 2008 dollars-drops to 19, with an adjusted loss of slightly more than $11 billion.
In 2017,13 fires, seven more than the previous year, resulted in more than $20 million each in property damage. These 13 fires resulted in a combined property loss of $12.4 billion, or 99.1 percent of the total loss in large-loss fires.
The two largest-loss fires in 2017 were so-called "fire siege" wildfire incidents that occurred in California. A fire siege is defined as multiple, simultaneous, long-burning wildfires that cover large land areas and create serious challenges for firefighters.
The first fire siege was a wildfire in Northern California, referred to by Cal Fire as the 2017 October Fire Siege, that burned 245,000 acres (99,147 hectares) or 335 square miles (868 square kilometers), caused $10 billion in damages, killed 44 people, destroyed an estimated 8,900 structures, and forced the evacuation of more than 100,000 people.
Leading up to the fire, AccuWeather reported a wetter than normal winter for 2016-2017 in California, which helped end a five-year drought. The precipitation contributed to ample vegetation growth, which subsequently become fuel for wildfires in the fall. In early October, 250 wildfires broke out. At the height of this wildfire activity, 21 fires burned out of control in six counties in Northern California. It has been reported that many of the fires were caused by downed power lines, falling power poles, and limbs falling on wires as a result of high winds. During this time, winds averaged 25-35...