Latest Wildfire Headlines
All the headlines from our Wildfire Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Farmers Estimates $225M Loss from Northern California Fires
Sep 30 2015 // Farmers Insurance reported more than 1,300 claims filed, and an anticipated 1,800 total, with an estimated overall loss of roughly $225 million from two California wildfires that burned nearly 150,000 acres this month in...
California Gas and Electric Company Seeks to Split Costs on Uninsured Fire
Sep 28 2015 // San Diego Gas and Electric is seeking authority to bill its customers $379 million for legal settlement costs left over from 2007 wildfires that destroyed 1,300 homes and killed two people. In filings with state regulators...
California Blazes Destroy 2,000-plus Homes, Curb Insurer Appetites
Sep 23 2015 // A pair of massive California wildfires that have destroyed more than 2,000 structures are now considered among the most damaging fires in state history, and they could change the way insurers view risk or conduct...
Obama Declares Major Disaster in California Wildfire
Sep 23 2015 // President Barack Obama declared a major disaster Tuesday in a Northern California wildfire that has destroyed at least 1,200 homes and killed at least three people. The declaration issued for the fire that broke out in...
Californians Pushed by Wildfires into High-risk Insurance Market
Sep 21 2015 // There are lots of reasons people live in California’s Modjeska Canyon. Nestled against the mountains and abutting the Cleveland National Forest, the area has abundant wildlife and access to nature, yet is just a 20...
Wyoming Man And His Insurers to Pay $2.9M for 2012 Wildfire
Sep 21 2015 // A man who accidentally started a 2012 wildfire that burned over a mountain and threatened the town of Jackson has agreed to a $2.9 million payment under a legal settlement. James G. Anderson Jr., 79, will be responsible...
Bloomberg View: California’s Wildfires Didn’t Have to Be So Extreme
Sep 21 2015 // Warming temperatures and a historic drought made Northern California’s Valley fire faster to spread and harder to fight. But the bigger culprit, sadly but thankfully, was something under human control: forest...
California Wildfires Destruction Total Now Tops 1,000 Homes
Sep 21 2015 // It has been several days since two huge wildfires in Northern California peaked in their ferocity, yet the damage they did is still being revealed daily. The tally of homes destroyed topped 1,000 on Saturday after...
Montana’s Wildfire Season Second-biggest So Far This decade
Sep 17 2015 // Montana’s fire season began quietly but has quickly grown to the second-largest so far this decade after lightning storms last month ignited a rash of blazes that spread rapidly amid bone-dry conditions. This season...
Massive California Blazes, And It’s Not Even Official Wildfire Season Yet
Sep 16 2015 // A pair of massive blazes in the Northern California are a bleak reminder of how bad things can get in a state with persistent drought and windy conditions. A more worrisome thought is California’s official wildfire...
Forrest Service Maps Shows Expansion of WUI in West as Wildfires Burn
Sep 16 2015 // A new U.S. Forest Service report shows the continued expansion of housing development near forests, an area referred to as the wildland-urban interface, with direct implications for the cost of wildfire...
Wildfire in California Damages Five Big Power Plants
Sep 15 2015 // A California wildfire damaged five power plants at Calpine Corp.’s Geysers geothermal complex in Lake and Sonoma Counties. The so-called Valley Fire burned local power distribution lines, cooling towers and...
FEMA Provides Federal Funds to Help Fight Oregon Wildfire
Sep 15 2015 // The Federal Emergency Management Agency has authorized the use of federal funds to help with firefighting costs for the Dry Gulch Fire in Baker County, Ore. FEMA Regional Administrator Kenneth D. Murphy determined that the...
Massive Northern California Wildfire Destroys 400 Homes and Businesses
Sep 14 2015 // Two fast-burning wildfires overtook several Northern California towns, killing at least one person and destroying hundreds of homes and businesses and sending thousands of residents fleeing highways lined with buildings,...
California Struggles with Wildfires, Thunderstorms, Triple-Digit Heat
Sep 9 2015 // Wildfires burned amid a week of triple-digit temperatures across California, while some sections of the state saw sudden thunderstorms and flash floods. High temperatures were expected from Sacramento to San Bernardino,...
Fighting Western U.S. Wildfires Costing More than $1B, Agriculture Chief Says
Sep 1 2015 // U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the federal government has spent more than $1 billion fighting this year’s deadly wildfires, which have scorched drought-stricken Western states. Vilsack told a news...
Wildfire Threatens Idaho Town, Evacuations Ordered
Aug 28 2015 // Residents in west-central Idaho near the town of Riggins were told to flee due to a wildfire that expanded to 40 square miles Thursday, an 11-square-mile jump. Fire managers say the fire made runs through the tops of trees...
$198M in Property at High Risk from Chelan Wildfire in Washington
Aug 26 2015 // The massive Chelan wildfire in Washington poses a significant risk to roughly 634 homes with a total reconstruction cost of more than $198 million, an analysis of the ongoing fire issued Wednesday shows. The analysis by...
Fire Burning Near California Ski Resort Threatens Homes
Aug 25 2015 // Hundreds of mountain homes remained threatened on Monday as crews increased containment of a wildfire burning through timber near a popular Southern California ski resort. Water cannons usually used for making snow were...
Smoke Lifts over Washington fires, but Potential for Fire Growth Remains
Aug 24 2015 // The massive cloud of smoke began to lift over Washington wildfires over the weekend, but as air quality improves the fire’s behavior could become more erratic and intense, fire officials said. “It’s like...
