From the Sacramento Bee:
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Two of California’s largest wildfire incidents in 2021 cost fire agencies more than $500 million apiece to suppress, and a third cost more than a quarter-million dollars to fight, according to new federal data.
The massive Dixie Fire, which burned from mid-July through late October in Northern California, cost an estimated $637 million to combat, according to an annual report from the National Interagency Fire Center.
The Beckwourth Fire Complex, which scorched 106,000 acres from July to September in Plumas National Forest, cost about $543 million.
And the Caldor Fire, which burned more than 220,000 acres in El Dorado County along Highway 50 and into the Lake Tahoe Basin, cost $271 million.
Those are just the suppression costs for fire agencies — they don’t reflect property damage, or base operating costs such as equipment. All three fires were fought by the U.S. Forest Service. Cal Fire battled the Caldor and Dixie fires in tandem with the Forest Service.
