Fueled by a megadrought worse than any other in the last 1,200 years, the New Mexico’s Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak fire is now the state’s largest wildfire on record. As firefighters in New Mexico struggle to contain the blaze, a new report from the First Street Foundation details increased wildfire risk across the country due to climate change. Just under 1 in 6 people in the U.S. (16%) live in an area with hazardous wildfire risk, increasing over the next 30 years to more than 1 in 5 people in the U.S. (21%). Nearly half of the fire-vulnerable population lives in the South, and people of color face disproportionate risk. (New Mexico fire: Reuters, Washington Post $, Axios, KOB-4, KOAT, AP, CNN; Wildfire risk: (Washington Post $, New York Times $, Wall Street Journal $, E&E $, The Verge, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Axios; Climate Signals background: Wildfires, Western U.S. megadrought)
