2021 national wildfire season was the longest and most destructive

26 November 2021

Published by https://www.ncwlife.com/

USA – The number of wildfires nationwide and the acres they burned both set records in 2021, the federal Department of Interior reported.

There wildfire season also saw a record number of days of high fire danger this year, the department reported.

Overall, there were 48,487 wildfires that burned more than 6.5 million acres.

There were 15 wildland firefighters and 33 civilians killed in 2021 fires.

In addition, 4,818 structures were destroyed.

California experienced the most wildfires, followed by Montana, Oregon, Arizona and Washington.

The vast majority of the wildfires were human-caused, Interior reported, but lightning-caused fires destroyed more acres.

Washington’s biggest wildfire was the Schneider Springs Fire outside Naches in Yakima County that burned more than 107,000 acres.

The Cub Creek Fire north of Winthrop burned more than 70,000 acres and the Cedar Creek Fire south of Winthrop destroyed more than 50,000 acres. The Twentyfire Mile Fire off the south shore of Lake Chelan burned just over 22,000 acres.