North Complex in Butte, Plumas, and Yuba counties, August 2020: 318,935 acres burned, 2,352 structures destroyed, 15 deaths.LNU Lightning Complex in Napa, Solano, Sonoma, Yolo, Lake, and Colusa counties, August 2020: 363,220 acres burned, 1,491 structures destroyed, 6 deaths.Creek in Fresno and Madera counties, September 2020: 379,895 acres burned, 858 structures destroyed, 0 deaths.SCU Lightning Complex in Stanislaus, Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Joaquin counties, August 2020: 396,625 acres burned, 225 structures destroyed, 0 deaths.Mendocino Complex in Colusa, Lake, Mendocino, and Glenn counties, July 2018: 459,123 acres burned, 280 structures destroyed, 1 death.

Dixie in Butte, Plumas, Lassen, Shasta, and Tehama counties, July 2021: 963,309 acres burned, 1,311 structures destroyed, 1 death.August Complex in Mendocino, Humboldt, Trinity, Tehama, Glenn, Lake, and Colusa counties, August 2020: 1,032,648 acres burned, 935 structures destroyed, 1 death.3 Top 20 Largest California Wildfiresīelow are the top 20 largest California wildfires so far. The most notable fire that took place during this early part of the 20 th century was the Matilija Fire, which burned approximately 220,000 acres in Ventura County. The conditions were just right for an intense and destructive fire.Ĭalifornia’s official fire records, however, do not start until 1932. The wildfire, which was human-made, was preceded by a severe drought coupled with high-speed winds that further dried out the land. However, farmers’ crops and thousands of sheep were reportedly destroyed. There were no records of any human lives lost during the Santiago Canyon Fire of 1889. 1 Before 2018, this was the largest wildfire in the state’s history in terms of acreage burned. It burned around 300,000 acres in parts of Orange County, San Diego County, and Riverside County. The earliest known wildfire in California history was the Santiago Canyon Fire of 1889. The Earliest Records of Fire in California Many of the most dangerous and destructive fires in California have happened within the last several years due to climate change. In this article, we will take you through the earliest records of fire in the state all the way up to the present day, where we take a peek into California’s possible future.

Knowing the history of wildfires in California is important because it helps us to prepare for what may be next. Perhaps worst of all, most of these wildfires were caused by human activity, which means they could have been prevented. They have destroyed millions of acres of land, burned down hundreds of thousands of structures, and caused the deaths of humans, animals, and plants. Pictured: The Dixie Fire, which began in the Feather River Canyon and burned 963k acres in July of 2021.Explore the history of California wildfires with details on the top 20 largest, most deadly, and most destructive fires, as well as interesting stats and figures.Ĭalifornia has a long and intense history with wildfire, with several in the past decade setting records for the largest, most deadly, and most destructive fires in the history of the United States as a whole.

In October, the state of California, especially in the Northern regions where most of the fires were located, received its first rain in over 200 days reducing the wildfire risk for much of the state. On August 18, 2021, the state of California was facing 'unprecedented fire conditions' as multiple fires including the Dixie Fire, McFarland Fire, Caldor Fire, and others raged on. In July, more than three times as many acres had burned compared to the previous year through that date, with drought, extreme heat, and reduced snowpack contributing to the severity of the fires. In January 2021 alone, 297 fires burned 1,171 acres on nonfederal land, which is almost triple the number of fires and more than 20 times the acreage of the five-year average for January. The 2021 wildfire season in California experienced an unusually early start amid an ongoing drought and historically low rainfall and reservoir levels.

Map of fires in california