Fire Stats: 2006 Worst Year Ever

According to government stats, 84,771 fires have burned 9,125,715 acres of land so far this year (beating 2005). That makes it the most damaging fire year (acres burned) since record keeping began in 1960, according to more government stats. (If you look only at the number of fires (graph), this year is below (so far) the yearly average of 128,856; the worst was 1981 with nearly 250,000 fires).

A forest firefighter runs down Lockwood Valley Road as flames burn through the brush after the fire jumped Lockwood Valley road in Ventura, Calif. on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2006. The Day fire jumped 60-foot-wide bulldozer lines in Los Padres National Forest Monday night. Despite the renewed intensity, no homes had been lost to the Day Fire, which began on Labor Day and has burned more than 143,100 acres in wilderness some 70 miles northwest of Los Angeles. (Ap Photo of the Day/Mike Meadows)

So why haven't we seen more news about the fires this year? The good news is that, due to more aggressive firefighting efforts, only 675 primary residences have been destroyed versus 3,000 in 2003 (so says the undersecretary of Agriculture who oversees the U.S. Forest Service according to USAToday; I suspect that the fires may have been more rural this year too). It is also the most expensive, to the tune of $1.5 billion spent so far (USAToday).

Looking at state-by-state rankings for 2006, Texas leads the ranking for acres burned so far this year, which makes sense because it's a big state; surprisingly California is 5th (but again, population dictates that if less acreage is burned in southern Cali, less houses would be lost). But looking at the number of fires (graph), California leads and Texas is 9th, so one could assume that everything, even the fires, is bigger in Texas.