Machine learning estimates on the impacts of detection times on wildfire suppression costs

As climate warming exacerbates wildfire risks, prompt wildfire detection is an essential step in designing an efficient suppression strategy, monitoring wildfire behavior and, when necessary, issuing evacuation orders. In this context, there is increasing demand for estimates of returns on wildfire investments and their potential for cost savings. Using fire-level data from Western Canada during 2015–2020, the paper associates variation in wildfire reporting delays with variation in suppression costs. We use machine learning and orthogonalization methods to isolate the impact of reporting delays from nonlinear impacts of the fire environment. We find that reporting delays account for only three percent of total suppression costs. Efforts to improve detection and reduce wildfire reporting delays by one hour lead to a modest 0.25% reduction in suppression costs. These results suggest that investments in detection systems that reduce wildfire reporting delays are not justified on suppression costs savings alone.