Estimated $580M spent on largest wildfires in 2012
Estimated $580 million spent fighting largest US wildfires in 2012; some burned over 3 mos.
File-This Aug. 11, 2012 photo provided by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management shows the Holloway Fire outside Denio, Nev., which burned more than 525 square miles of remote rangeland straddling the Oregon-Nevada border. Federal statistics show that efforts to douse the largest of the nation's wildfires last year cost more than $580 million, and some fires burned for more than three months. A summary by the National Interagency Fire Center also shows more than 80 percent of the 51 largest fires were sparked by lightning. That includes the Long Draw and Holloway fires, which together burned more than 1 million acres and were among the largest in Oregon's history. (AP Photo/U.S. Bureau of Land Management,File)
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- Federal statistics show that efforts to douse the largest of the nation's wildfires last year cost more than $580 million, and some fires burned for more than three months.
A summary by the National Interagency Fire Center also shows that more than 80 percent of the 51 largest fires were sparked by lightning.
That includes the Long Draw and Holloway fires, which together burned more than 1 million acres and were among the largest in Oregon's history.
It was also a record year in New Mexico, where an estimated $42.4 million was spent fighting the state's largest and most destructive fires. Both were sparked by lightning.
The report shows hundreds of millions of dollars were also spent fighting the largest fires in California and Idaho.
