LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles metro area has the most homes that have an extreme risk of being destroyed or damaged in a wildfire, more so than anywhere in the Western United States, a real estate information service reported Thursday.

Core-Logic conducted a study that found 776,000 homes are considered at a high risk of being burned down in a blaze in the 13 Western states most affected by wildfires.

In the LA metro area, 122,000 homes are at high risk, the study says.

Riverside ranked second with 109,000, while San Diego has a little over 75,000 homes at extreme or high risk.

What the study looked at included areas where fires keep happening, how close the homes are to wildland areas, how much fire-feeding vegetation surround the homes, and how steep mountain slopes are near the homes.

Core-Logic said in 8,767,492 acres burned in 2018 across the U.S., the sixth highest recorded number of acres burned since record-keeping began in the mid-1900s.

As of Sept. 1, CalFire reported 3,700 wildfires that have burned 28,100 acres across California state since the start of the year. Last year at this time, more than 4,200 fires had burned an astonishing 622,600 acres. The five-year average for the period is 4,196 fires and 269,443 acres. (Source: KNBC)

Story Date: September 25, 2019