Western wildfires burn 10 million acres and overwhelm state capacity

The 2020 Western wildfire season burned more than 10.2 million acres and caused severe damage in California, Oregon and Washington. NOAA reported the Western wildfires caused about $16.5 billion in damages and 46 deaths in 2020 dollars before later CPI updates. The federal response included fire-management assistance, disaster declarations and debates over climate risk, forest management and whether federal mitigation money could match the scale of the threat.