Department of Agriculture

the Forest Service, which is responsible for most of the country's fire-fighting efforts, has a budget of $708 million for fire suppression and another $303 million in a special account created in 2009 for fire fighting. The overall fire management budget of $2.5 billion is up about 60 percent from a decade ago and fighting fires isn't cheap. Suppressing wildfires requires hotshot teams, hand crews and tankers and helicopters to dump chemicals to keep the flames at bay. 

 National Fire Protection                        Association

Wildland fires are a serious threat to lives and property in the U.S. The combination of drought, warmer temperatures, high winds and an excess of dried vegetation in forests and grasslands has made fire seasons progressively worse over the past 50 years. And, in the last decade, wildfires have burned over 80 million acres of these lands. According to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), 2015 saw one of the worst fire seasons in decades, with over 10 million acres burned.​

Boy Scouts of America

Humans and Wildfire. As many as 90 percent of wildland fires in the United States are caused by humans. Some human-caused fires result from campfires left unattended,

1. Do not build a campfire at a site with dry conditions. Check with the local park ranger to see if there is a burn ban.

2. If there is no burn ban, use the designated fire ring or fire pit for your campfire.

3. If there is no designated campfire spot, look for a site away from tents, trees or scrub.

4. Keep your campfire small and under control. Never leave your campfire unattended.

5. Allow the fire to burn completely to ash. Then, to fully extinguish the campfire, pour lots of water and drown all embers. Stir the ashes with a shovel and pour more water atop the ash until all hissing sounds stop. Make sure everything is cold to the touch.