Report: Texas Cities Included in Areas with Extreme Risk of Wildfire Damage

In its 2019 Wildfire Risk report, a global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider, CoreLogic, shows that across the nation nearly 776,000 homes with an associated reconstruction cost value of more than $221 billion are at extreme risk of wildfire damage.

The report looks at 13 western states, including Texas and Oklahoma, that are the most vulnerable to wildfire, though the report points out that no state is free of wildfire risk.

From 2002 to 2018 Alaska leads with average acres burned (1.62 million), followed by California (710,268), Idaho (586,513), Texas (546,415) and Oregon (486,803), according to the report.

In terms of wildfire risk reconstruction value, Los Angeles ($71 billion), Riverside ($40.94 billion) and San Diego ($35.81 billion) metro areas ranked as the top three high-risk areas, respectively, with more than 42% of residences at high-to-extreme wildfire risk.

Other metro areas high on the list for reconstruction value include Sacramento, Calif. ($27.5 billion); Austin, Texas ($16.35 billion); San Francisco, Calif. ($16.32 billion); and Denver Colo. ($15.32 billion).

Two other Texas cities were on the list: San Antonio ($8.43 billion), and Houston ($6.27 billion).

California and Texas lead the U.S. in the number of residences and reconstruction cost value in the high- and extreme-risk categories combined due to both their larger geographic size and large populations.

States analyzed in the Corelogic Wildfire Risk Report include Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

The Texas Forest Service recently warned of the increased potential for wildfires in Central and West Texas. As of Sept. 5, 161 of Texas’ 254 counties are under burn bans.

Topics California Catastrophe Natural Disasters Texas Wildfire