The
2018 wildfire season was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire season in
California history. It was also the largest on record at the time, now third after the
2020
The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...
and
2021 California wildfire seasons.
In 2018, there were a total of 103 confirmed fatalities, 24,226 structures damaged or destroyed, and 8,527 fires burning , about 2% of the state's 100 million acres of land. Through the end of August 2018, Cal Fire alone spent $432 million on operations. The catastrophic
Camp Fire alone killed at least 85 people, destroyed 18,804 buildings and caused $16.5 billion in property damage, while overall the fires resulted in at least $26.347 billion in property damage and firefighting costs,
including $25.4 billion in property damage and $947 million in fire suppression costs.
In mid-July to August 2018, a series of large wildfires erupted across California, mostly in the northern part of the state. On August 4, 2018, a national disaster was declared in Northern California, due to the extensive wildfires burning there.
The
Carr Fire in July and August 2018 caused more than $1.5 billion (2018 USD) in property damage.
The
Mendocino Complex Fire burned more than , becoming the largest complex fire in the state's history at the time, with the complex's Ranch Fire surpassing the
Thomas Fire and the
Santiago Canyon Fire of 1889 to become California's single-largest recorded wildfire.
In September 2020, the
August Complex surpassed the Mendocino Complex to become California's single-largest recorded wildfire.
In November 2018, strong winds aggravated conditions in another round of large, destructive fires that occurred across the state. This new batch of wildfires included the
Woolsey Fire and the Camp Fire. The Camp Fire destroyed the town of
Paradise
In religion and folklore, paradise is a place of everlasting happiness, delight, and bliss. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical, eschatological, or both, often contrasted with the miseries of human ...
and killed at least 85 people, with 1 still unaccounted for as of August 2, 2019.
The Camp Fire destroyed more than 18,000 structures, becoming both California's deadliest and most destructive wildfire on record.
AccuWeather
AccuWeather, Inc. is a private-sector American media company that provides commercial weather forecasting services. AccuWeather was founded in 1962 by Joel N. Myers. The company adopted the name 'AccuWeather' in 1971.
AccuWeather is headquar ...
estimated the total economic cost of the 2018 wildfires at $400 billion (2018 USD), which includes property damage, firefighting costs, direct and indirect economic losses, as well as recovery expenditures. Another study, published two years after the fires, estimated the total damages at $148.5 billion, including capital losses, health costs and indirect losses.
Causes
Several factors led to the destructiveness of the 2018 California wildfire season. A combination of increased fuel loading and atmospheric conditions influenced by
global warming
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...
led to a series of destructive fires. Primary causes of wildfire vary geographically based on many factors, such as topography.
For example, characteristically dense forests in the
Sierra Nevada
The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...
Mountains harbor fuel-driven fires while the open central valley from the south Bay Area to San Diego County are more prone to wind-driven fire over dry grasslands.
Increase in fuel
A direct contributor to the 2018 California wildfires was an increase in dead tree fuel. By December 2017, there were a record 129 million dead trees in California. Tree mortality is linked to a period during the 2010s of "anomalously warm droughts"
that were severe and long-lasting enough to stand out even amongst California's existing history of wildfires and
exceptionally dry conditions.
One study focused on the concentrated mortality of densely populated conifers of the Sierra Nevada "found that die-off was closely tied to multi-year deep-rooting-zone drying" and that severity of that dryness can be used to predict mortality.
Such drought leaves trees stressed for water, which makes them susceptible to beetle infestation and exacerbates tree mortality further.
Drought intensity lessened in California by 2017, but the effects of tree mortality linger for years. One study expresses a lack of sufficient data to confidently determine the rate of coniferous tree decay in the Sierra Nevada. Nonetheless, it is a gradual process, and the remaining dead tree matter is an optimal fuel source for future wild fires.
Atmospheric conditions
Stanford
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...
Earth System Science
Earth system science (ESS) is the application of systems science to the Earth. In particular, it considers interactions and 'feedbacks', through material and energy fluxes, between the Earth's sub-systems' cycles, processes and "spheres"—atmosp ...
Professor
Noah Diffenbaugh stated that atmospheric conditions for
California wildfires are expected to worsen in the future because of the effects of
climate change in California
Climate change in California has resulted in higher than average temperatures, leading to increased occurrences of droughts and wildfires. Over the next few decades in California, climate change is predicted to further reduce water availabilit ...
and that "what we're seeing over the last few years in terms of the wildfire season in California
svery consistent with the historical trends in terms of increasing temperatures, increasing dryness, and increasing wildfire risk." Other experts agreed, saying that global warming is to blame for these extreme weather conditions. Global warming has led to higher temperatures and longer summers, creating a drier landscape that gave fires more fuel to burn longer and stronger.
Research published August 2018 predicted an increase in the number of wildfires in California as a consequence of
climate change
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
. However, from a historical perspective, it has been estimated that prior to 1850, about 4.5 million acres (17,000 km
2) burned yearly, in fires that lasted for months.
Residential construction in the wildland-urban interface
A
wildland–urban interface
The wildland–urban interface (WUI) is a zone of transition between wilderness (unoccupied land) and land development, land developed by human impact on the environment, human activity – an area where a built environment meets or intermingles ...
(or WUI) refers to the zone of transition between unoccupied land and human development. Communities that are within 0.5 miles (0.80 km) of the zone may also be included. These lands and communities adjacent to and surrounded by wildlands are at risk of wildfires. Since the 1990s, over 43% of new residential buildings have been constructed in this area. In some areas, the amount of new residences in those areas is 80%. In the past, when these areas burned, no residences were lost, but now residences are present, which end up being destroyed. Furthermore, a "century of successful fire suppression" performed in an attempt to protect forests and those living in WUIs has also disrupted natural cycles of disturbance and renewed succession of an ecosystem by allowing fuel to reach abnormal density levels discussed above.
Air quality

Northern California and the
Central Valley saw drastic increases in
air pollutants
Air pollution is the presence of substances in the air that are harmful to humans, other living beings or the environment. Pollutants can be gases like ozone or nitrogen oxides or small particles like soot and dust. It affects both outdoor air ...
during the height of the July and August fires, while Southern California also experienced an increase in air pollution in August. Air quality in Northern and Central California remained poor until mid-September 2018, when fire activity was drastically diminished. However, during the November
Camp Fire, air quality diminished again, with the majority of the Bay Area being subjected to
air quality index
An air quality index (AQI) is an indicator developed by government agencies to communicate to the public how polluted the air currently is or how polluted it is forecast to become. As air pollution levels rise, so does the AQI, along with the a ...
es (AQIs) of 200 and above, in the "unhealthy" region.
Wildfires
The following is a list of fires that burned more than , or produced significant structural damage or loss of life.
Fatalities
On June 4, the Panoche Fire broke out, in a series of three blazes that started in the
San Benito County
San Benito County (; ''San Benito'', Spanish for " St. Benedict"), officially the County of San Benito, is a county located in the Central Coast region of California. Situated in the California Coast Ranges, the county had a population of 64 ...
area. While the Panoche incident was the smallest of the three fires, burning only , the remains of three people were found in a destroyed camping trailer in the burn area.
The remains were believed to belong to a mother, a toddler, and an infant.
On July 14, a
Cal Fire
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, colloquially known as CAL FIRE, is the fire department of the California Natural Resources Agency in the U.S. state of California. It is responsible for fire protection in various are ...
bulldozer operator was killed while fighting the
Ferguson Fire, becoming the first firefighter death of the season.
On July 23, the
Carr Fire broke out after a vehicle malfunctioned. While the Carr Fire burned in rural areas of
Shasta County for the first few days, it crossed the
Sacramento River
The Sacramento River () is the principal river of Northern California in the United States and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for before reaching the Sacramento–San Joaquin River D ...
and entered the city limits of
Redding, California
Redding is a city in and the county seat of Shasta County, California, and the economic and cultural capital of the Shasta Cascade region of Northern California. Redding lies along the Sacramento River, north of Sacramento, California, Sacrame ...
on the evening of July 26. By the next morning, two firefighters and four civilians had been killed.
On July 29, a firefighter with the
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...
was killed after a dead tree fell and struck him, while he was fighting the
Ferguson Fire. He was "treated on scene, but died before he could be taken to the hospital".
On August 4, a
Pacific Gas and Electric Company
The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is an American investor-owned utility (IOU). The company is headquartered at Kaiser Center, in Oakland, California. PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to 5.2 million households in the norther ...
employee was killed in a vehicle incident while working to restore services to areas impacted by the Carr Fire.
On August 9, a Cal Fire heavy equipment mechanic was killed in a traffic incident while working at the Carr Fire.
On August 13, a firefighter was killed while fighting the Mendocino Complex Fire.
On November 8, 2018, 85 civilians were killed by the
Camp Fire, while three firefighters were injured. The number dead had been listed at 87, lowered to 85 by early December when it was discovered one victim was put in several bags.
Three people
also died during the
Woolsey Fire near
Malibu.
Verizon Wireless data throttling
In August 2018, the Santa Clara County Fire Department raised claims against
Verizon Wireless
Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under the name Verizon Wireless. In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the div ...
that their "unlimited" data service had been
throttled while the fire department was attempting to contain the
Mendocino Complex Fire. The Verizon contract stated that the department's plan would be throttled down to 200 kbit/s or 600 kbit/s once the department had used 25 GB in a single month. However, the contract stated that the usage related throttling would not apply in certain emergency situations, such as wildfire containment operations. The plan remained throttled, despite the department's notification to Verizon regarding the situation.
Gallery
2018_California_Wildfires-Smoky_skies_in_Sacramento_on_August_3,_2018.jpg, Photograph of smoky sky near sunset in early August looking toward the west, in Sacramento, California
Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...
. The smoke was produced by the wildfires.
California National Guard battles wildfires (7900427458).jpg, California National Guard battles wildfires.
2018 campfire smoke effects on San Francisco.jpg, The Bay Bridge in San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
, California. The photo on the left was taken November 16, 2018 and the one on the right October 14, 2018.
Camp Fire - GG Park Drone 2.jpg, Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park is an urban park between the Richmond District, San Francisco, Richmond and Sunset District, San Francisco, Sunset districts on the West Side (San Francisco), West Side of San Francisco, California, United States. It is the Lis ...
as seen by drone during the Camp Fire
File:2018 Ferguson Fire map.png, Ferguson Fire
File:2018 Carr Fire map.png, Carr Fire
File:2018 Mendocino Complex Fire map.png, Mendocino Complex Fire
File:2018 Camp Fire map 1.png, Camp Fire
File:2018 Woolsey Fire map.png, Woolsey Fire
See also
*
List of California wildfires
This is a partial and incomplete list of wildfires in the US state of California. California has dry, windy, and often hot weather conditions from spring through late autumn that can produce moderate to severe wildfires. Pre-1800, when the a ...
*
October 2017 Northern California wildfires
The October 2017 Northern California wildfires, also known as the Northern California firestorm, North Bay Fires, and the Wine Country Fires were a series of 250 wildfires that started burning across the state of California, United States, ...
*
December 2017 Southern California wildfires
*
Climate change in California
Climate change in California has resulted in higher than average temperatures, leading to increased occurrences of droughts and wildfires. Over the next few decades in California, climate change is predicted to further reduce water availabilit ...
References
External links
Current fire information —
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, colloquially known as CAL FIRE, is the fire department of the California Natural Resources Agency in the U.S. state of California. It is responsible for fire protection in various area ...
(CAL FIRE)
SDSC WiFire Interactive Mapnbsp;— San Diego Supercomputer Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:California Wildfires
California, 2018
First presidency of Donald Trump
2018
Events January
* January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency.
* January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...
Effects of climate change