SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. state of Alaska has seen about 300 million U.S. dollars spent in fighting wildfires in 2019, including one that occurred close to populated areas in the state, an Alaskan daily reported on Sunday.
The Alaska Division of Forestry recorded 224.9 million dollars in combating the wildfires that scorched over 2.68 million acres (about 10,846 square km) across the state, the Anchorage Daily News (ADN) cited a report of the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center (AICC) as saying.
The ADN said the cost does not include losses that Alaskans have suffered from their burnt land and homes.
The expenses on fighting wildfires for this year included the sum of 72 million dollars reported by the U.S. Department of the Interior and 7 million dollars by the U.S. Forest Service, respectively, the ADN added.
A record hot, dry weather during this summer caused some of this year's biggest fires occurring close to populated areas in the state, such as the Swan Lake Fire that had been burning for months on the Kenai Peninsula in southern Alaska, according to the newspaper report.
By Nov. 23, 2019, the AICC had reported a total of 719 wildfires in the state, 372 of them started by lightning strikes.
