Reading Time: 5 mins
\",\"name\":\"4c20d5c6-36ff-4451-87fb-f57b69abb0c7\"},{\"type\":\"HEADING_3\",\"value\":\"Wildfires have shown an increasing breadth of risk in recent years. Natural conditions that promote fire activity, combined with a growing concentration of assets in high-risk areas, are changing wildfire probabilities and risk considerations year-round.
\",\"name\":\"0c3dd44e-ec67-4f60-bf1d-43c28c90046e\"},{\"type\":\"PARAGRAPH\",\"value\":\"A 2023 U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee report estimated that wildfires cost the United States between $394 billion and $893 billion each year, with the largest shares coming from diminished real estate values, adverse health effects from wildfire smoke, income losses, and watershed costs. Those losses amount to roughly 2% to 4% of GDP.
\",\"name\":\"6a5a21e5-bcdc-4257-ba3f-a3da8a5719f4\"},{\"type\":\"WIDGET\",\"value\":{\"media\":\"/media/screenshot-2026-07-03-022356.png\",\"alt_text\":\"wildfires by cause\",\"caption\":\"\"},\"name\":\"migration_media\"},{\"type\":\"PARAGRAPH\",\"value\":\"Data from the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) show that over the last 25 years, the annual number of fires has been driven consistently by human-caused ignitions rather than lightning. The United States has averaged 68,872 fires per year. The year 2006 recorded the highest number of fires in the period, while 2013 recorded the lowest, with 48,806 fewer fires than 2006.
\",\"name\":\"6ae0d17f-fc7e-4c47-b455-faa10b89d296\"},{\"type\":\"WIDGET\",\"value\":{\"media\":\"/media/screenshot-2026-07-03-022513.png\",\"alt_text\":\"Acres burned\",\"caption\":\"\"},\"name\":\"migration_media\"},{\"type\":\"PARAGRAPH\",\"value\":\"NIFC data shows greater variance in burnt acreage over the last 15 years. From 2010 – 2025, an average of 6,877,750 acres have burned annually. When comparing the greatest annual losses (2015) to the lowest (2023), there is a difference of almost 7.5 million acres.
\",\"name\":\"a2d012de-69c7-47b5-8ac0-0faf29004309\"},{\"type\":\"PARAGRAPH\",\"value\":\"Despite the relatively steadiness of annual fire counts and the variance in years of heavy and relatively light burnt acreage, NIFC data shows that suppression costs for fires in America have risen consistently.
\",\"name\":\"4cc81213-303b-49de-a8eb-9067d1994441\"},{\"type\":\"WIDGET\",\"value\":{\"media\":\"/media/screenshot-2026-07-03-022624.png\",\"alt_text\":\"wildfires suppression cost\",\"caption\":\"\"},\"name\":\"migration_media\"},{\"type\":\"PARAGRAPH\",\"value\":\"The global insurance company Munich Re calculated global wildfire losses for 2025 at $224 billion USD, of which $108 billion was insured. The costliest wildfires were the Los Angeles Eaton and Palisades fire disaster of January 2025, with estimated damages of $53 billion, $40 billion of which was insured. These wildfires took 31 lives and destroyed 16,000 structures, many of them in some of the most expensive housing markets in the United States.
\",\"name\":\"b08ce0cc-15ce-430e-9687-dd55613ed798\"},{\"type\":\"PARAGRAPH\",\"value\":\"These wildfires were particularly damaging because of drought conditions and their rapid spread, buffeted by Santa Ana winds that reached up to 90 miles per hour. The two small wildfires grew dramatically within hours. The Palisades fire ultimately burned for 31 days before being extinguished, leaving a total of 37 square miles burned. The Eaton fire burned for 25 days, destroying 22 square miles. Together, these fires devastated an area roughly the size of San Francisco.
\",\"name\":\"dd2bf46c-33cb-4663-9619-1da53d29bb79\"},{\"type\":\"PARAGRAPH\",\"value\":\"Los Angeles’ rapidly spreading and destructive 2025 wildfires join a recent pattern of out-of-season fires that have carved broad swaths of destruction amid drought conditions and high winds.
\",\"name\":\"9023d6e5-95fd-45e1-8d9c-a3218001a543\"},{\"type\":\"HEADING_3\",\"value\":\"The 10 costliest wildfires since 1900 have occurred in the United States and Canada, and nine of them have occurred since 2016. Before 2015, wildfires accounted for 1% of global insured losses from natural hazards. That share has risen to around 7%. This increase reflects both more hazardous conditions and the expansion of human settlement into high-risk zones known as the wildland-urban interface (WUI), where communities encroach on fire-prone landscapes.
\",\"name\":\"a7d81562-3ac3-4d9f-ad8a-f731f8c58a19\"},{\"type\":\"PARAGRAPH\",\"value\":\"The United States Fire Administration (USFA) estimates that more than 60,000 communities in the United States are at risk from WUI fires and that WUI areas grow by approximately two million acres per year. It also says that California, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania have the largest number of houses in at-risk WUI areas.
\",\"name\":\"7b2bd057-532b-48b3-88f6-eef2253783b2\"},{\"type\":\"PARAGRAPH\",\"value\":\"The map below, based on data released by the USFA and the US Forest Service, shows the percentage of homes in each state located in WUI and subject to elevated fire risk.
\",\"name\":\"06b4b7a3-1405-49d7-afb7-3adef3317151\"},{\"type\":\"WIDGET\",\"value\":{\"media\":\"/media/screenshot-2026-07-03-022826.png\",\"alt_text\":\"percentage of houses in wildfires\",\"caption\":\"\"},\"name\":\"migration_media\"},{\"type\":\"PARAGRAPH\",\"value\":\"According to research scientists working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, the size of the wildland-urban interface (WUI) in the United States increased by 179,000 square kilometers between 1990 and 2020 — an area roughly the size of Washington state. Over that same 30-year period, the number of homes in WUI areas rose by 46%, reaching about 44 million. As of 2020, 9.4% of U.S. land area and 32% of homes in the continental United States were in WUI areas.
\",\"name\":\"cb5cab08-b744-451c-8c07-8683fc7125cc\"},{\"type\":\"PARAGRAPH\",\"value\":\"Yet the easiest metrics to track — immediate deaths and the costs of damage and suppression — fail to capture the true scope of wildfire impacts. Estimates place the damage from the Los Angeles fires at between $250 billion and $275 billion, with an additional $4 billion to $9 billion in lost economic output projected through 2029.
\",\"name\":\"34b5658c-7fd4-4dae-99d3-18ea260693e0\"},{\"type\":\"PARAGRAPH\",\"value\":\"Wildfires also inflict severe long-term health consequences. Smoke exposure worsens health outcomes, and excess mortality analysis suggests that the Los Angeles fires, which were immediately associated with 31 deaths, may ultimately be linked to as many as 440 additional deaths.
\",\"name\":\"25f0affd-5336-4fa5-8904-0e13be79dcc5\"},{\"type\":\"PARAGRAPH\",\"value\":\"The environmental ripple effects are even broader. Forest fires are a major driver of global forest loss. They also threaten forested watersheds, which supply two-thirds of the world's drinking water, by releasing contaminants into these systems.
\",\"name\":\"ba8fc9f5-b15d-48ec-ba78-d1961df5512a\"},{\"type\":\"PARAGRAPH\",\"value\":\"Beyond the environment, Los Angeles' fires intensified the city's affordability crisis, spiking rents and worsening labor shortages. Ten percent of nonprofit organizations experienced service disruptions. In the aftermath of a fire, affected municipalities often face larger budget deficits as recovery spending diverts resources from community development.
\",\"name\":\"8e72b03d-1798-419c-9603-404a96e40912\"},{\"type\":\"HEADING_3\",\"value\":\"When wildfire threatens your people, facilities, or operations, preparation and response require more than data — they require expertise you can act on.
\",\"name\":\"66732c7f-ab33-4e6a-a604-aa57cff35c02\"},{\"type\":\"PARAGRAPH\",\"value\":\"Pinkerton brings together advanced risk intelligence and on-the-ground operational experience few organizations can match. Our Risk Pulse platform delivers localized wildfire risk analysis tailored to your specific locations, tracking exposure before incidents occur. But technology alone isn't enough. Our risk advisors bring decades of security and crisis management experience to help you identify gaps in preparedness plans and strengthen defenses. When wildfires strike, Pinkerton's emergency response teams don't just advise — we deploy. When every decision counts and there's no time for trial and error, Pinkerton's proven expertise makes the difference.
\",\"name\":\"41a66094-331e-4c55-8018-f51221558171\"},{\"type\":\"WIDGET\",\"value\":{\"content\":\"SOURCES
Associated Press. “A Year after the LA Wildfire Disaster, Key Numbers Show How It Unfolded and the Toll Left Behind.” PBS NewsHour, 7 Jan. 2026, www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/a-year-after-the-la-wildfire-disaster-key-numbers-show-how-it-unfolded-and-the-toll-left-behind.
Insurance Information Institute. “Top 10 Costliest Global Wildfires By Insured Losses, 1900-2025.” Archived Tables, Jan. 2026, www.iii.org/table-archive/222654.
Munich Re. “Wildfires and Bushfires - Climate Change Increasing Wildfire Risk.” Munich Re, Apr. 2026, www.munichre.com/en/risks/natural-disasters/wildfires.html.
National Interagency Fire Center. “Wildfire Statistics.” National Interagency Fire Center, 2026, www.nifc.gov/fire-information/statistics.
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR) 2025: Resilience Pays: Investing and Financing for Our Future. 2025, www.undrr.org/gar/gar2025.
“The Invisible Costs of Wildfire Disasters in 2025.” UNDRR News, 13 Jan. 2026, www.undrr.org/news/invisible-costs-wildfire-disasters-2025.
U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee. The Total Cost of Wildfires in the United States. Oct. 2023, www.jec.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/9220abde-7b60-4d05-ba0a-8cc20df44c7d/jec-report-on-total-costs-of-wildfires.pdf.
U.S. Fire Administration. “What is the WUI?” U.S. Fire Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2024, www.usfa.fema.gov/wui/what-is-the-wui/.
USDA Forest Service. “Between Nature and Neighborhoods: Mapping the Dynamics of the Wildland-Urban Interface and Growing Risk.” USDA Forest Service Research, 7 Sept. 2023, research.fs.usda.gov/nrs/articles/between-nature-and-neighborhoods-mapping-dynamics-wildland-urban-interface-and-growing.