2018 California wildfires

Date: June-November 2018

Place: Various locations in the state of California

Result: Fueled by weather patterns and dry conditions, several major wildfires impacted the state in 2018. Firefighters battled the largest wildfire in state history in July, while in November, a devastating fire north of Sacramento killed dozens of people and caused more than $16 billion in damages.

Overview

In 2018, the state of California experienced the deadliest and most destructive wildfire season in its history. Fire crews battled more than 8,000 wildfires that charred more than 1.8 million acres, destroyed more than 17,000 homes, and left more than 100 people dead. The most devastating of the fires occurred in November in Butte County, north of Sacramento. The fast-moving Camp Fire, so named because it started on the county’s Camp Creek Road, was responsible for the majority of the deaths and was one of the deadliest fires in US history.

In 2017, California had what was then its worst wildfire season with more than 1.2 million acres of land burned. For several years, the state had been suffering from a severe drought that left behind acres of dead brush and trees. California is prone to wildfires, and the dry conditions coupled with the abundance of potential fuel meant the 2018 wildfire season was likely to be similar to 2017.

Scattered fires were reported in the state in April and May, but the first fatal fire claimed the lives of three people in June. A large blaze called the Carr Fire erupted in late July in Shasta and Trinity counties. The Carr Fire destroyed more than 230,000 acres and killed eight people. About the same time, two fires in Lake and Mendocino counties joined together to form the Mendocino Complex Fire. The fire, which killed one firefighter and burned more than 459,000 acres, was the largest wildfire in California history. In early August, the areas of California affected by the fires were declared federal disaster areas.

On November 8, 2018, two major wildfires erupted on the same day in two parts of the state. In southern California, the Woolsey Fire broke out in Ventura and Los Angeles counties. The fire killed three people, destroyed more than 1,600 homes, and burned more than 96,000 acres. Almost 300,000 people were forced to evacuate from their homes.

Similar to most of the wildfires across the state, the Camp Fire in Butte County was fueled by an abundance of dead brush and trees, but it was made worse by dry winds funneled down the slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the east. The 40- to 50-mile per hour (64- to 80-kilometer per hour) winds whipped the flames into a quick-moving firestorm that consumed about 80 acres a minute and 70,000 acres over a 24-hour period.

As the blaze rushed toward the town of Paradise, a community of about 27,000 people, residents were ordered to evacuate. However, the fire moved so quickly that some people did not have enough time to leave before the flames were upon their homes. Overwhelmed firefighters prioritized rescue operations over containment, racing to save as many people as possible. Despite their efforts, an estimated 13,696 homes—about 90 percent of the town of Paradise—were destroyed and eighty-eight people were killed. Many of those who died were so badly burned, medical officials could only identify them through DNA or dental records.

More than 5,500 firefighters—some called in from neighboring states—battled the Camp Fire for several weeks. The effort included the use of more than 630 fire engines and 23 helicopters. The blaze was not fully contained until November 25.

Impact

The eighty-eight fatalities from the Camp Fire made it the deadliest fire in California’s history and the deadliest fire in the United States since 1918. The fire ranks fifth all-time among deadliest blazes in US history and twelfth all-time on a worldwide scale. The fire burned more than 153,000 acres and caused an estimated $16.5 billion in damages, the costliest natural disaster worldwide in 2018. The Woolsey Fire, which caused an estimated $4 billion in damages, was the fifth-costliest natural disaster.

Six months after the Camp Fire, many residents of Paradise had expressed an interest in rebuilding, though the site of the town remained on a list of high-risk areas for future wildfires. The region’s lone hospital and eight of the area’s nine schools damaged or destroyed in the fire remained closed. The heat from the fire damaged the city’s water pipes, contaminating them with a cancer-causing substance called benzene. Officials estimated repairing the damaged pipes could take up to two years.

While the drought conditions and other meteorological factors contributed to the spread of the Camp Fire, officials also believed preventive logging practices likely increased the fire danger. An attempt to reduce fire risk by clearing out larger trees in 2008 may have allowed smaller trees and brush to grow in its place. This material provided the fire with a much faster-burning source of fuel.

Though an exact cause of the Camp Fire had yet to be determined as of May 2019, suspicion fell upon Pacific Gas and Electric, California’s largest electric utility provider. The utility was deemed responsible for seventeen of the twenty-one wildfires in Northern California in 2017. Most of the blazes were the result of downed power lines or faulty equipment.

Pacific Gas and Electric had agreed to shut off power in areas that were under extreme risk of fire, but had not done so in the area near Paradise on November 8. The utility company acknowledged that it had detected a malfunction in a transmission line just fifteen minutes before the first reports of the Camp Fire were received. In December 2018, more than thirty-five residents of Paradise filed a class-action lawsuit against Pacific Gas and Electric blaming the utility for causing the disaster. The suit alleges that three steel rings atop a transmission tower failed, causing several live wires to come down, sparking the fire.

Bibliography

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