Cerro Grande Wildfire
What started out as a controlled fire in Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico turned into a disaster when high winds pushed the fire north, south and east of its designated lines. This led to the Cerro Grande wildfires, one of the worst in the state’s history.
In fact, things got so bad that the blaze expanded into the towns of White Rock and Los Alamos. In the end, 18,000 residents had to evacuate as the fire consumed 47,000 acres of the forest and encompassed 280 homes. All in all, the damage set the state back $1 billion.