June 23, 2015
Wildfire Statistics
Wildfires are unplanned and unwanted fires, including
Figure 1. Annual Wildfires and Acres Burned
lightning-caused fires, unauthorized human-caused fires,
(1984-2014)
and escaped prescribed fire projects. States are responsible
for responding to wildfires that begin on nonfederal (state,
local, and private) lands, except for lands protected by
federal agencies under cooperative agreements. The federal
government is responsible for responding to wildfires that
begin on federal lands. The Forest Service (FS)—within the
U.S. Department of Agriculture—carries out wildfire
management and response across the 193 million acres of
the national forest system. The Department of the Interior
(DOI) manages the wildfire response for more than 400
million acres of national parks, wildlife refuges and
preserves, other public lands, and Indian reservations.
Wildfire statistics help to illustrate past U.S. wildfire
activity. Nationwide data compiled by the National
Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) indicate the number of

wildfires has stayed about the same over the last 30 years,
Source: NIFC.
but the number of acres burned annually has increased (see
Notes: Data reflect wildland fires and acres burned nationwide,
Figure 1). Every year since 2000, an average of 74,000
including wildland fires on federal and nonfederal lands.
wildfires burned an average 6.6 million acres. This is nearly
double the average annual acreage burned in the 1990s (3.6
Over the last 10 years, nearly 6.9 million acres burned
million acres), although a greater number of fires occurred
annually on average. The last 2 years have been below that
annually (83,000 on average).
average, with 3.6 million acres burned in 2014 and 4.3
million acres burned in 2013, the second- and third-fewest
Table 1. Annual Wildfires and Acres Burned
acres burned annually since 2005. (The least was 3.4
(2010-2014)
million acres in 2010).
2010
2011 2012 2013 2014
The fires in 2013 and 2014 also burned fewer acres than
No. of Fires (thousands)




those in 2011 (8.7 million acres) and 2012 (9.3 million
acres), which represent the third- and fourth-largest
Federal 14.0
15.0
16.9
14.2
13.0
amounts of acreage burned since 1960. The eight largest
FS 6.8
6.7
7.1
7.1
6.8
fire years since 1960 have occurred since 2000, ranging
from more than 7 million acres burned to nearly 10 million
DOI 6.9
7.9
9.6
6.7
6.1
acres burned.
Nonfederal 58.0
59.2
50.9
33.4
50.6 Figure 2. Top Ten Years with Largest Wildfire
Total 72.0
74.1
67.8
47.6
63.6
Acreage Burned Since 1960
Acres Burned (millions)




Federal 1.68
3.44
7.24
3.08
2.2
FS 0.32
1.73
2.68
1.37
0.87
DOI 1.30
1.60
4.44
1.59
1.24
Nonfederal 1.74
5.28
2.09
1.23
1.4
Total 3.42
8.71
9.32
4.32
3.60
Source: National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC).
Notes: Federal includes fires that began on land managed by the
Forest Service (FS), Department of the Interior (DOI), and other
federal agencies. Nonfederal includes all other lands. Column totals
may not add due to rounding.

Source: NIFC.
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Wildfire Statistics
In 2014, 60% of the nationwide acreage burned by wildfires
Wildfire Damages
was on federal lands (2.2 million acres; see Table 1). The
Wildfires can have a devastating impact, especially for
other 40% of the acreage burned occurred on state, local, or
those communities affected by wildfire activity. Therefore,
privately owned lands, but it also accounted for most of the
statistics showing the level of destruction a wildfire causes
fires (50,570). Of the federal acreage burned nationwide in
can be useful. Some more easily quantifiable measures
2014, 56% (1.24 million acres) burned on DOI land and
include acres burned, lives lost (firefighters and civilians),
40% (0.87 million acres) burned on FS land (see Figure 3).
structures destroyed, and suppression costs for a specific
Figure 3. Percentage of Acreage Burned
wildfire. There is no single source for this type of
by Landowner
destruction data. Multiple federal and state organizations
(2010-2013)
collect different data. Therefore, the data can usually be
found, but in a piecemeal fashion. Firefighter personnel
100%
data for the FS and DOI, firefighter fatalities, and structures
burned are provided in Table 2.
80%
Table 2. FS and DOI Personnel and Loss Statistics
60%
(FY2011-FY2014)
40%

FY2011 FY2012 FY2013 FY2014
Personnel




20%
FS Firefighters
10,480 10,480 10,000 10,000
0%
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
DOI Firefighters
3,664 3,447 3,450 3,450
Forest Service
DOI
Other Federal
Non-federal
Losses





Source: NIFC.
Firefighter Fatalities
12 15 34 10
More wildfires occur in the East (including the central
Structures Burned
5,246 4,244 2,135 1,953
states), but more acreage burns in the West (including
Source: Agency budget justifications and agency emails. Firefighter fatalities
Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana,
data from the NIFC’s Historical Wildland Firefighter Fatality Reports and the
New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and
National Wildfire Coordinating Group’s Fatalities, Entrapments and Serious
Wyoming). In 2014, 42,000 fires burned fewer than 1
Accident Summary Safety Grams. Structures burned year-end totals from the
million acres in the East, compared with 20,000 wildfires
NIFC Wildland Fire Summary and Statistics Annual Report 2014.
that burned nearly 3 million acres in the West (see Table
Notes: Firefighter fatalities and structures burned reflect calendar-year data.
1). In the East (where there is less federal acreage), most of
Structures include primary residences, commercial buildings, outbuildings, and
the fires occur on nonfederal lands, while in the West most
seasonal dwellings.
of the fires occur on federal lands (see Figure 4). In 2014,
there were slightly fewer than 10,000 fires across nearly 2
Conflagrations
million acres of western federal land. In the East, there were
more than 3,000 fires across 197,000 acres of federal land.
Only a small fraction of wildfires become catastrophic, and
a small percentage of fires accounts for the vast majority of
Figure 4. Acreage Burned by Region and Landowner
the acres burned. For example, only about 1% of wildfires
(2010-2014)
become conflagrations—raging, destructive fires—but
predicting which fires will “blow up” into conflagrations is
challenging and depends on a multitude of factors, such as
weather and geography. In 2014, only 1% of the wildfires
were classified as large or significant (666). Nine of those
fires exceeded 40,000 acres in size; four exceeded 100,000
acres. Of the more than 1 million wildfires that have
occurred since 2000, approximately 150 exceeded 100,000
acres and 12 exceeded 500,000 acres.
CRS Reports
CRS Report R43077, Wildfire Management: Federal
Funding and Related Statistics.
CRS Report R44082, Wildfire Spending: Background,
Issues, and Legislation in the 114th Congress
Source: NIFC.
Katie Hoover, khoover@crs.loc.gov, 7-9008
Notes: West = Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho,
Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and

Wyoming. East = all other states, including Puerto Rico.
IF10244
www.crs.gov | 7-5700

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