Why 2023 has been such an unusual and tragic year for wildfires

Unusual and tragic are two words that might describe the 2023 wildfire season which experts say might end up being a game changer for U.S. fire policy.

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Tragic and bizarre may be the two words that best sum up wildfires in 2023. There were fires in the tropics, and toxic smoke from blazes near the Canadian Arctic blew down to the Eastern Seaboard for weeks. NPR’s Kirk Siegler reports that this year’s fire survivors face a long recovery.

KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE: Wildfires in California and the West are often dominating headlines by August – not this year. Instead, remnants of a hurricane were dumping record rain, and it was Hawaii that was on fire.

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AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the NewsHour. At least 55 people are confirmed dead tonight after fast-moving wildfires ravaged the island of Maui.

SIEGLER: It ended up being the deadliest wildfire in modern U.S. history, killing 100 people. Some survivors had no other means of escape but to jump into the ocean.

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SIEGLER: In the aftermath of the fire, a seaside resort near the destroyed town of Lahaina had become a shelter. David Ormsbee said he was grateful to have made it out of the fire alive.

DAVID ORMSBEE: The smoke just kept getting blacker. It just started getting hotter and hotter, and we just got the hell out.

SIEGLER: Ormsbee was shellshocked. The fire destroyed the apartment building where he rented and the business he worked at.

ORMSBEE: Now it’s just a matter of the waiting game, you know? And what do you do next? That is the question. I don’t know. I’m working one day at a time, man.

SIEGLER: The recent years have shown that it can now take a decade or more to recover from climate-driven wildfires. On Maui, they’re still just clearing the debris, and there was already a labor and housing shortage before the fire. Catrin Edgeley is a wildfire recovery expert at Northern Arizona University.

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