A Devastating Look at the Impacts of Wildfires Beyond the Burn

Wildfires are increasingly threatening and destroying human infrastructure. One “low end” estimate put the cost of the 2021 Dixie Fire at $1.15 billion, including fire suppression and damages. Disasters of such scale, fires included, are becoming more common.

There is also the obvious human cost to wildfires. Three firefighters were killed in the Dixie Fire and three others were injured. Others, still, were left with their homes and communities in shambles.

The 2018 Camp Fire was the deadliest in California’s state history. 86 people are known to have died as a result of the blaze.

More recently, the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak wildfire left more than 341,000 burned acres in its wake. The fire started in April and is the largest in New Mexico state history. Here, in Mora County, only small pockets of trees survived. Most of the mountains are covered in swathes of now skeletal forest.

The impact of the largest wildfires can even be seen from space, where satellites capture pictures of huge burn scars. Here, the charred landscape surrounds the town of Healdsburg, CA which itself is about 24 x 25 miles across.

Wildfires don’t just happen out West. This image is from Gatlinburg, Tennessee where a 2016 fire caused mass devastation. At the time of the fire, most of the region was in a state of extreme drought.

In Georgia’s Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, repeated wildfires have damaged hundreds of thousands of acres of swamp and forest. The last fire swept through the refuge in 2017 and this year, the forest remained bare in patches. But there’s a bright side: Land managers are replacing the lost trees with more fire resilient species.

It’s easy to make the connection between charred trees or burned down buildings and wildfire. But other consequences are less obvious. Landslides, for instance, frequently follow wildfires because the scorched land is left vulnerable to erosion, without living plant roots to hold soil in place.

This landslide in Feather River Canyon blocked Highway 70 in Northern California and closed the road for more than a month in 2021. More recently, just last month, stretches of the same highway were closed down for more landslides.

Flooding also often follows wildfires. Charred earth is chemically changed and doesn’t absorb water very well, so rainfall flows right off of the land. Floods pile on damage amid recovery efforts. Here, two people shovel mud left by post-fire flooding away from their business in Cascade, Colorado.

In Alaska, an underground smolder in an old coal mining seam triggered nine different wildfires during the 2016 season. Here, the fire is visible burning through an existing scar from a past wildfire. Though recent burn scars contain less fuel for future fires, Repeat wildfire still often occurs.

In April, a small wildfire in Monte Vista Colorado was fueled by wind, but was quickly contained. Even so, the fire destroyed several homes and other structures. Here, Savino Sanchez searches through the wreckage of his family home. No people or pets were lost, but all of Sanchez’ belongings were.

Because of the added risk of flooding, erosion, and landslides, wildfires can imperil drinking water quality. Soot, mud, and other run-off streams into rivers and reservoirs when rain falls on burn scars.

The psychological scars from wildfires can run deep. Research has demonstrated that wildfire survivors suffer from increased rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health issues. At least one 2021 study determined fire survivors had PTSD rates on par with combat veterans.

Here, two burn scars are visible in a single picture. The brown patches represent more than 1,000 combined square miles of land.

Wildlife, too, suffer the effects of wildfires. Not all animals are able to escape burns, especially given how fragmented their habitat had become thanks to human encroachment.

Wildfires leave gaps in their wake. There are those who will never return to their homes, and communities that never come back.

But many do try to re-build. Once the rubble has been cleared, new construction can start. The trouble is, places hit once by wildfire are likely to be vulnerable again. The town of Paradise is aimed to rebuild with fire resilience in mind.