Latest Wildfire Headlines
All the headlines from our Wildfire Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Supreme Court Rejects Sempra’s Bid to Recover $379M from 2007 California Wildfire Payouts
Oct 7 2019 // The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a bid by Sempra Energy’s San Diego Gas & Electric Co to recover $379 million from customers related to damages it was forced to pay out in litigation after the...
Lawsuit Says Colorado Railroad Ignited Fires Prior to Wildfire
Oct 7 2019 // A federal lawsuit says nearly 50 fires in Colorado were ignited by a railroad company in the weeks leading up to a major wildfire. The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad caused the smaller fires along its tracks...
22 New California Laws Take Aim at Wildfire Danger
Oct 4 2019 // California is adopting nearly two dozen laws aimed at preventing and fighting the devastating wildfires that have charred large swaths of the state in recent years and killed scores of people. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom...
Wildfire Risk in Georgia Increasing Amid Southern Drought
Oct 1 2019 // The ongoing drought has made outdoor burning in Georgia more dangerous than previous years, state officials said. In the past three months, the Georgia Forestry Commission says firefighters have responded to – on average...
Council Recommends $4B Plan to Safeguard Oregon from Wildfires
Sep 30 2019 // A task force created by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown says climate change, overstocked forests and understaffed fire teams have placed Oregonians in extreme risk, necessitating a multi-billion-dollar program to safeguard the...
Lawsuit Says Colorado Railroad Ignited Fires Prior to Wildfire
Sep 27 2019 // A federal lawsuit says nearly 50 fires in Colorado were ignited by a railroad company in the weeks leading up to a major wildfire. The Durango Herald reported Tuesday that The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad...
Death Toll from Northern California Wildfire Back Down to 85
Sep 26 2019 // The number of those who died in California’s deadliest wildfire is back down to 85 after authorities determined that a bone fragment previously classified as unidentified belongs to a victim named in January. The...
PG&E Cuts Power to 48K California Customers to Avert Wildfire Risk
Sep 25 2019 // Pacific Gas & Electric cut power to 48,200 customers in seven counties in California’s Sierra Foothills and North Bay overnight because of high fire danger. The majority of those affected by the power outage,...
Thousands of Californians Face Power Shutoffs Due to Wildfire Risk
Sep 24 2019 // California utilities are warning that they may shut off electricity to thousands of customers across the state as hot, dry and windy weather raises the risk of another catastrophic wildfire sparked by a power...
Alaska Has This Year’s Most Expensive Wildfire in U.S.
Sep 24 2019 // The nation’s most expensive wildfire this year is one that has been burning for months on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. The Swan Lake Fire has so far cost about $46 million to fight, according to the National...
PG&E Attacks Plan for Paying California Wildfire Victims Before Insurers
Sep 23 2019 // PG&E Corp. and a group of insurers urged a judge to reject a competing reorganization plan for the bankrupt utility because the proposal would pay fire victims who lost their homes ahead of insurance companies and...
How Forested Communities Are Trying to Adapt to Growing Wildfire Threat
Sep 23 2019 // Unless it’s Sunday, Kelly Loew is steering her rusty red Jeep down the same mail route in Shingletown, as she has six days a week for the last seven years. But she delivers less mail these days as California’s...
Re/insurers Rethink Climate Change Risks as Losses Grow from Wildfires, Floods, Hail
Sep 20 2019 // By the time David Kaisel got back from selling his flour at a farmers’ market, a wildfire in California’s Capay Valley had burnt both his tractor and the shipping container where he kept some tools. His insurer...
Federal Settlements in South Dakota Wildfire Total More Than $700K
Sep 19 2019 // Landowners in South Dakota have received over $700,000 in a lawsuit accusing a federal agency of burning their properties in an April 2013 prescribed fire that blazed out of control, destroying more than 10,000 acres. The...
PG&E Tells Fire Safety Critics Utility is Going Beyond Call of Duty
Sep 18 2019 // PG&E Corp. sought to assure a judge it’s making progress on fire prevention, saying it’s exceeding regulatory requirements to clear vegetation from power lines. Kevin Orsini, a lawyer for the utility, on...
Santa Ana Winds Return to California Bringing Wildfire Danger
Sep 16 2019 // The Santa Ana winds have returned to California, a signal to the state’s residents that the wildfire season has begun in earnest. The winds are created by high pressure over Nevada’s Great Basin as cool weather...
PG&E Reaches $11B Settlement with Insurers Over California Wildfire Claims
Sep 13 2019 // Bankrupt California utility giant PG&E Corp. resolved a key battle by agreeing to pay $11 billion to settle insurance claims from wildfires blamed on its equipment. An even bigger struggle looms. The settlement with...
Climate Change Tops List of World’s ‘Extreme Risks’
Sep 12 2019 // Global temperature change, global trade collapse and cyber warfare are the top three “extreme risks” identified in a study from Willis Towers Watson. The new paper out this month is part of the firm’s...
Report: Texas Cities Included in Areas with Extreme Risk of Wildfire Damage
Sep 12 2019 // In its 2019 Wildfire Risk report, a global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider, CoreLogic, shows that across the nation nearly 776,000 homes with an associated reconstruction cost value of...
Report: $221B in Western U.S. Homes at Extreme Risk of Wildfire Damage
Sep 12 2019 // Nearly 776,000 homes with a reconstruction cost value of more than $221 billion are at extreme risk of wildfire damage, a new report out Thursday shows. The 2019 CoreLogic Wildfire Risk Report examines single-family and...
