Fast-moving wildfires are spreading throughout California. So far, at least 17 people have died and more than 20,000 people have been forced to evacuate.
The fires began blazing through California’s wine country Sunday night. The two largest and most destructive fires have consumed more than 52,000 acres in Napa and Sonoma counties.
The wildfires have placed about 172,117 homes at risk in Napa and Santa Rosa, according to an analysis by CoreLogic. The homes at risk could cost $65 billion to completely reconstruct, the real estate data firm says. Of those properties, only 6 percent, or 11,058 homes, face the highest level of risk from wildfire destruction. The other homes fall into a low or moderate risk category. However, “wildfires can easily expand to adjacent properties and cause significant damage,” the firm warns. CoreLogic says that an estimated 9.1 million homes are at some level of risk from wildfires in California.
Across the state, 17 large wildfires were still burning on Tuesday and covering 115,000 acres,
The New York Times reports.
Source: “California Wildfires Threaten Thousands of Homes Worth Tens of Billions, CoreLogic Says,” MarketWatch (Oct. 10, 2017) and “Wildfires Burn Out of Control Across Northern California; 17 Are Dead,” The New York Times (Oct. 10, 2017)
