Wildfire Damage to US Homes Exceeds $5 Billion: Data

Originally published on May 16, 2022, by Diana Olick for CNBC.com.

Raging New Mexico and California wildfires may offer an ominous outlook for America's growing swath, not just in the West.

Wildfire risk is increasing, likely due to global warming, and its destruction is becoming ever more expensive. Of the wildfires that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has tracked since 1980, 66% of the damage has occurred in the last five years. Insured damage from wildfires last year totaled $5 billion, according to a Yale University report, marking the seventh consecutive year of insured losses above $2 billion.

Wildfire risk modeling is more crucial than ever to help protect lives and property, and new technology from a Brooklyn-based nonprofit, First Street Foundation, is mapping the threat with house-by-house specificity.

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