NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 27

The total cost T
of wildfire
is far greater
than we
think.

A two-year-old boy in Brazil
receives renal and respiratory
treatment after inhaling smoke
from forest fires in August.
Studies indicate that exposure
to smoke from wildfires has a
variety of serious long-term
health effects on people.
MICHAEL DANTAS/AFP VIA
GETTY IMAGES

A gas station destroyed by
the Creek Fire in California
in September. Disruptions
caused by wildfires can have
a profound impact on local
and regional economies, with
business interruption costs
reaching into the billions of
dollars. JOSH EDELSON/AFP
VIA GETTY IMAGES

HE COST OF WILDFIRE is often
measured in lives lost, buildings
destroyed, and acres burned. In California alone, the 2020 wildfire season
had, as of mid-October, killed more
than 30 people, destroyed some 8,500
structures, and torched a record-breaking 4 million acres of land-double the
acreage burned in 2018, the state's second-worst wildfire season on record.
But the total cost of wildfire extends
well beyond these three metrics, starting
with the money it takes to contain or suppress the fires-a figure that has grown
significantly over the past three decades.
There are also less quantifiable metrics
that may be even more costly: disruptions
to business, taxes, and tourism; residents
left with soaring medical bills; and polluted air, soil, and waterways.
Federal wildfire suppression costs in
the United States have spiked from an
annual average of about $425 million
from 1985 to 1999 to $1.6 billion from
2000 to 2019, according to data from
the National Interagency Fire Center.
State suppression costs have also
risen; in California, the average annual
suppression cost has nearly doubled
over the past decade compared to the
previous one, reaching about $400 million. The most recent CAL FIRE data
available suggests the agency was on
pace to spend nearly $700 million on
suppression for the 2019/2020 fiscal
year. "All this money spent on suppression means less money for prevention
efforts, which is key to addressing

the problem of wildfire losses," says
Michele Steinberg, director of the
Wildfire Division at NFPA.
Less understood are wildfire's indirect costs, which, according to experts
interviewed by the New York Times
in September, likely outweigh the
more apparent, direct costs associated
with property loss and suppression. A
report published in 2018 by Headwaters Economics, a nonprofit research
organization, estimated that for the
2017 wildfire season in California,
insurance claims for property loss plus
suppression costs only accounted for
about $14 billion out of the staggering
$100 billion estimate of the season's
overall cost. Indirect costs associated
with environmental cleanup, lost business and tax revenue, and property
and infrastructure repairs accounted
for the $86 billion difference, the
report says. The popular weather
forecasting service AccuWeather has
predicted that costs for the 2020 wildfire season could total between $130
and $150 billion.
Wildfires leave behind toxic debris in
the air, soil, and waterways, requiring
billion-dollar cleanups in some cases,
and they can also have a long-lasting,
costly impact on human health. A
study published last year in the journal GeoHealth reported that the 2012
wildfire season in Washington led to
$2.3 billion in health care costs, most
related to respiratory illnesses including asthma and pneumonia. A 2017
study led by the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that the cost of
short-term exposures to US wildfires
occurring between 2008 and 2012 that
led to premature deaths or hospital
admissions at $63 billion; the cost of
long-term exposures was estimated at
$450 billion. Scientists fear the 2020
wildfire season-which at times has
turned cities like Portland, Oregon,
into the world's most polluted-could
leave thousands of people sick and
facing sizable medical bills. "In the
short term, we have the potential for
emergency-room-type events, but in
the longer term, we have the development of more chronic disease," a
professor of preventative medicine told
Vox in September. -Angelo Verzoni
N F PA . O R G / J O U R N A L * NFPA JOURNAL

Feature wildfire 11.20 DCS FINAL 11.03.20 (R).indd 27

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11/3/20 1:09 PM


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NFPA Journal - November/December 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - November/December 2020

Contents
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - Cover1
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - Cover2
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 1
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 2
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 3
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - Contents
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 5
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 6
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 7
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 8
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 9
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 10
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 11
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 12
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NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 26
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 27
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NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - Cover3
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