Wildfires are getting deadlier and costing more. Experts warn they’re becoming unstoppable

<p>Of 200 fires in the past 44 years, half of the fires that cost US$1bn or more were in the last decade</p><p>Wildfires <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/06/chile-wildfires-death-toll-rises-valparaiso-vina-del-mar">tore through central Chile last year</a>, killing 133 people. In California, 18,000 buildings were destroyed in 2018 causing US$16bn (A$24bn, £12bn) in damage. Portugal, Greece, Algeria and Australia have all felt the grief and the economic pain in recent years.</p><p>As the headlines, the death tolls and the billion dollar losses from wildfires have stacked up around the world, so too have the rising temperatures – fuelled by the climate crisis – that create tinderbox conditions.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/02/earths-wildfires-growing-in-number">Continue reading...</a>