Report Calls out California Wildfires Among 2017 U.S. Hazards

CoreLogic’s annual Natural Hazard Risk Summary and Analysis released in late January shows that 2017 was a year of relatively average activity for most U.S. natural hazards with the exception of wildfires in California and flooding from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

The annual report reviews hazard activity in the U.S. including events for flooding, earthquake, wildfire, wind, hail, tornado and hurricanes, as well as several international events including Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake in Mexico and Cyclone Debbie in Australia.

Wildfires were also called out in the report.

The total number of acres burned (9,791,062, acres) in 2017 is the third highest in U.S. history, preceded by 2015 (10,125,149 acres) and 2006 (9,873,745 acres), the report shows.

The 10 most destructive wildfires in 2017, in terms of structures destroyed, were in California and include:

• The Tubbs Fire in northern California which burned 36,807 acres and 5,643 structures
• Until the Tubbs Fire, the two worst wildfires in California history — Tunnel in 1991 and Cedar in 2003 — destroyed 5,720 structures combined
• The Nuns Fire in northern California which burned 54,382 acres and 1,355 structures
• The Thomas Fire in southern California which burned 281,893 acres and 1,063 structures
• The Atlas Fire in northern California which burned 51,624 acres and 781 structures
• The Redwood Valley Fire in southern California which burned 36,523 acres and 544 structures
• The Cascade Fire in northern California which burned 9,989 acres and 398 structures
• The Lilac Fire in southern California which burned 4,100 acres and 157 structures
• The Detwiler Fire in Mariposa County, California which burned 81,826 acres and 131 structures
• The Creek Fire in southern California which burned 15,619 acres and 123 structures
• The Helena Fire in Trinity County, California which burned 21,846 acres and 123 structures