A fast-moving fire burned hundreds of homes in Spokane, Wash., in August 2026. Mario Tama/Getty Images As temperatures rise and development expands, the number of homes and other structures damaged or destroyed by wildfires across the U.S. is on pace to triple by mid-century, my colleagues and I found in a study just…

The number of buildings across the contiguous United States threatened by wildfires could almost triple by 2060, according to a new study, if the country continues to ignore the perils of climate change, mismanage its forests and build homes in places where large fires naturally occur. The paper, published Tuesday in…

The reporting and photography for this story was fully supported by a 2025-2026 grant from the Sitka Foundation and the Science Media Centre of Canada. Four of the five worst years recorded for global forest fires occurred since 2021. And 2026 is no exception, with hundreds of thousands in North America, Europe and…