PB #4890 Notable >>3846853
I smell fuckery. The California "Red Book" lists historic fire costs by year. Took 2015 as the single example anticipating that there would be high costs since it is a 'run up' year to the 2016 presidential election.
Notable Anon has great stats from non-California sources. I had a spreadsheet from long ago using CA's reported numbers.
The numbers don't match - If we assume that the federal #s are correct, CA under reported the amount of burned acres. California reports 291,000+ acres burned. The Feds report 893,000+ acres. California reports $3+ Billion dollars, the and feds' report (per notable Anon) was $4.8+ Billion. So why would CA underreport the $ damage and why would the Feds over report? There are so many agencies involved it would be difficult to make sure all the money went where it is supposed to have gone.
In the document prior Anon linked to, the state with the largest burned acres in 2015 was Alaska with 5+ million acres burned, followed by Washington State with 1+ million acres burned followed by CA and ID.
https://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/fireInfo_documents/SuppCosts.pdf
https://www.predictiveservices.nifc.gov/intelligence/2015_Statssumm/fires_acres15.pdf
http://www.fire.ca.gov/fire_protection/fire_protection_fire_info_redbooks_2015