The United States is on pace to see one of its most active wildfire seasons on record.
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States → see → record
According to a new AccuWeather report, large fires were active in at least 13 states as of Sept. 9, while more than 8.4 million acres had burned nationwide this year—about 1.3 million acres above the full-year annual average over the previous decade.
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acres → accord → decade
The extraordinarily active season is testing a recently overhauled federal wildfire-response system while placing mounting financial pressure on governments, taxpayers, insurers, and individual households.
How the U.S. changed its wildfire response after the Los Angeles fires
The Los Angeles fires in January 2025 were high-profile incidents that drew widespread attention to the nation’s risk.
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that → test → risk
They were notable as sudden, highly concentrated, urban conflagration events—and they stand in contrast to the 2026 wildfire season, which has garnered less attention with the incidents geographically dispersed across the U.S.
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which → concentrate → U.S.
However, almost twice as much land has burned so far in 2026 as had burned at the same point in 2025, according to AccuWeather.
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land → burn → AccuWeather
The Palisades and Eaton fires in L.A. showcased just how costly massive wildfires are in terms of infrastructure damage, loss of life, and economic impact.
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wildfires → showcase → life
Collectively, the fires burned about 37,500 acres and destroyed nearly 17,000 structures, killing at least 31 people.
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fires → burn → people
Munich Re estimated total damage at $53 billion, including $40 billion in insured losses—“by far the largest insured loss on record from a wildfire event,” according to the United Nations.
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Re → estimate → Nations
In response, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on June 12, 2025, calling for the consolidation of wildfire response resources within the Interior and Agriculture departments within 90 days.
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Trump → sign → days
The U.S. Wildland Fire Service was formed as a result.
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Service → form → result
The order also directed agencies to review rules that might impede wildfire response, develop performance metrics, release relevant historical satellite data, and evaluate the sale of excess military aircraft for wildfire response.
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that → direct → response
Those provisions carried deadlines ranging from 120 to 210 days.
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provisions → carry → days
Since then, the Administration has overhauled how the federal government fights fires.
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government → overhaul → fires
One of the largest shifts involves focusing on wildfire suppression.
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One → involve → suppression
Since April, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has directed crews to presume a full-suppression strategy for every wildfire under the management of the Interior Department.
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Burgum → direct → Department
While managers are instructed to select tactics according to on-the-ground conditions, the presumptive approach is suppression—a pursuit that is widely known to be expensive.
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that → instruct → conditions
The move has drawn criticism as states compete for limited firefighting resources, and as federal forecasters expect above-normal significant-fire potential in parts of the West through September.
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forecasters → draw → September
The financial toll of wildfires has dramatically escalated in recent years as fire seasons grow longer and fires become more severe.
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fires → escalate → years
Why wildfire costs are rising for federal and state governments
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costs → rise → governments
The National Multi-Agency Coordination Group (NMAC), composed of representatives from the federal and state agencies, establishes national preparedness levels ranging from 1 to 5.
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Group → compose → 5
The country remained at Level 5 from July 18 through Sept. 4, meaning national resources were heavily committed and some regions had to take emergency measures to sustain operations.
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regions → remain → operations
The level was lowered to 3 on Sept. 9.
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level → lower → Sept.
During the Level 5 period, the National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group warned of “high competition” for firefighting resources nationally.
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Group → warn → resources
It said the system lacked sufficient incident-management resources to meet every request, prompting concerns among lawmakers about whether resources could be exhausted before the season ended.
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season → say → lawmakers
On Friday, five Democratic Senators—Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff of California, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper of Colorado, and Ron Wyden of Oregon—released a letter to Burgum and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, expressing “serious concerns” about the departments’ preparedness and ability to adequately respond to the ongoing wildfire season.
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Senators → release → season
The letter says the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Wildland Fire Service had more than $6 billion in fire-suppression budget authority for fiscal year 2026 and had spent more than 70% by Aug. 31.
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Service → say → Aug.
“Any wildfire that represents a threat to life, property, infrastructure or the environment should be extinguished as quickly as possible,” federal officials with the Wildland Fire Service said in a statement to the Associated Press in July when the policy was instituted.
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policy → represent → July
“Our experienced fire managers retain the authority to select the safest and most effective tactics based on conditions on the ground.”
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managers → retain → ground
Some experts argue, however, that full suppression is part of the issue that makes wildfires so large and expensive in the first place.
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wildfires → argue → place
“These Western ecosystems are adapted to fire; they need fire, and they've burned for thousands of years.
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they → adapt → years
Roughly 150 years ago, we started suppressing fires, and in large swaths of the Western forests, that led to an accumulation of fuels,” Winslow Hansen, ecologist with the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, tells TIME.
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Hansen → start → TIME
Fuel can refer to any vegetation, twigs, branches, or organic soils that may be prone to catching fire—especially in the hot, dry conditions that are more prevalent nationwide due to climate change, he explains.
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he → refer → change
The combination leads to more fuel and drier fuel for fires, Hansen says, and “that leads to more intense fires, larger fires, and even faster fires.”
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that → lead → fires
Federal suppression spending captures only one portion of wildfires’ broader economic toll.
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spending → capture → toll
A Department of the Interior review estimated that wildfires impose between $87 billion and $424 billion in annual costs, measured in 2022 dollars, including property and health damages and other economic losses.
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wildfires → estimate → damages
The department cautioned, however, that significant gaps in the available data make the total difficult to calculate.
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total → caution → data
Separately, a 2018 Headwaters Economics review of existing research and five wildfire case studies estimated that suppression represented approximately 9% of the fires’ full community costs.
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suppression → exist → costs
State governments are shouldering part of that broader economic burden.
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governments → shoulder → burden
While no comprehensive national tally tracks their wildfire spending in real time, data within affected states illuminates the strain.
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data → track → strain
In Oregon, wildfires had burned 2.5 million acres and cost the state $236.2 million as of late August.
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wildfires → burn → August
…and 22 more, not listed.
The Aporia
