Playing with Fire

The report argues that rising temperatures and drier conditions in the American West, combined with a trend of building homes in wildfire-prone areas, have led to longer fire seasons and soaring suppression costs. It highlights a misalignment of incentives where federal taxpayers bear the brunt of firefighting costs while local zoning allows risky development. The document details the broad economic impacts of wildfires—extending far beyond direct suppression to include public health crises, infrastructure damage, and tourism losses—and recommends a shift toward resilience, stricter building codes, and carbon emission reductions.

• Climate change is driving an increase in the number and duration of wildfires in the western United States. The average annual number of large wildfires on federally managed lands in 11 western states rose from approximately 140 in 1980–1989 to 250 in 2000–2009, and the average fire season has lengthened from five months in the 1970s to seven months today.
• Rising temperatures are facilitating record pest infestations that increase available fuel for fires. Between 2000 and 2013, bark beetles killed 47.6 million acres of forests in the western United States, as warmer winters allowed them to survive and reproduce more effectively.
• Residential development in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) is significantly increasing human exposure to wildfire risks. More than 1.2 million homes across 13 western states are at high or very high risk, with a combined estimated value exceeding $189 billion; California, Colorado, and Texas contain nearly 80 percent of these high-risk properties.
• Federal fire management budgets are disproportionately skewed toward suppression rather than proactive risk reduction. The share of the Forest Service budget dedicated to fire management increased from 13 percent in 1991 to over 40 percent in 2012, often forcing the agency to borrow funds from other programs to cover suppression costs.
• Direct suppression costs are only a small part of the total economic burden of wildfires. A synthesis of six case studies indicates that total costs can be 2 to 30 times higher than direct suppression costs, with significant 'hidden' costs in public health, infrastructure, and tourism.
• Wildfires cause severe public health impacts through smoke and soot pollution, which can travel hundreds of miles. For example, the 2008 fire season resulted in nearly $2.2 million in hospital costs for respiratory and cardiovascular conditions in the Reno/Sparks area of Nevada from fires within a 350-mile radius.
• Wildfires create long-term risks for water supplies and infrastructure. In Colorado, the 1997 Buffalo Creek and 2002 Hayman fires cost Denver Water $26 million in rehabilitation, while the 2000 Cerro Grande fire in New Mexico cost the Los Alamos Water Utility over $9 million and generated $72.4 million in additional costs.
• There is a systemic misalignment of incentives where local zoning allows risky development while federal taxpayers fund the resulting suppression. This 'moral hazard' reduces the incentive for homeowners to invest in fireproofing and for local authorities to restrict development in the WUI.

APA

Cleetus, R., & Mulik, K. (2014). Playing with Fire. Union of Concerned Scientists. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/legacy/assets/documents/global_warming/playing-with-fire-report.pdf

Chicago

Cleetus, Rachel, and Kranti Mulik. Playing with Fire. Union of Concerned Scientists, 2014. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/legacy/assets/documents/global_warming/playing-with-fire-report.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Cleetus |first1=Rachel |last2=Mulik |first2=Kranti |title=Playing with Fire |publisher=Union of Concerned Scientists |date=July 2014 |url=https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/legacy/assets/documents/global_warming/playing-with-fire-report.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{cleetus2014playing, author = {Cleetus, Rachel and Mulik, Kranti}, title = {{Playing with Fire}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2014}, month = jul, url = {https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/legacy/assets/documents/global_warming/playing-with-fire-report.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }