Sponsor: Southwest Fire Science Consortium

Presenter: Dr. Melanie Colavito, Ecological Restoration Institute, Northern Arizona University

The 2010 Schultz Fire was ignited by an abandoned campfire on June 20 and burned 15,075 acres northeast of Flagstaff, Arizona. Following the fire, intense monsoon rains over the burned area produced flooding that resulted in extensive damage. In 2013, a full-cost accounting was conducted that estimated costs for the first three years of between $133 million and $147 million. This presentation will provide results from a 2021 study that re-evaluates those costs after ten years and provides unique insights into the long-term economic, ecological, and social effects of a major wildfire and post-fire flooding. We conservatively estimated that the total costs of the 2010 Schultz Fire for the period 2010–2021 was between $95.8 million and $100.7 million in 2021 dollars, including fire response and post-fire flooding response and mitigation, but excluding all losses and gains from assessed property values. This is a 30%–15% increase in the respective range of costs from 2013 — excluding 2013 property values.