By around this time last year, 118 thousand acres had been burned by 4,927 wildfires in California. So far in 2020 this figure is at an astounding 2.3 million acres caused by 7,606 fires. Before this, 2018 had held the record for the amount of land burned, with close to 900 thousand acres affected.
As this infographic shows, the costs of wildfires in California have escalated significantly over the last four decades. Average annual California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection expenditure for its fire suppression emergency fund from 79/80 to 88/89 was $25 million, while from 09/10 to 18/19, the figure had risen to $401 million.
This chart shows the Average annual fire suppression expenditure for the emergency fund of CDFFP from 1979 to 2019.
