The Northern California 2018 Extreme Fire Season

The fire season of 2018 was the most extreme on record in Northern California in terms of the number of fatalities (95), over 22,000 structures destroyed, and over 600,000 ha burned. The most deadly and destructive fire in California history, the Camp Fire, occurred in Butte County in the Sierra Nevada foothills in early November, and caused 85 fatalities and destroyed nearly 19,000 structures. The largest fire complex in state history, the Mendocino Complex, which included the Ranch fire, the largest single fire in state history, burned nearly 186,000 ha. It occurred in July and August, killing one firefighter. In western Shasta County nearly 138,000 ha burned from July through September in the Carr, Hirz, and Delta Fires. These fires caused multiple closures of Interstate 5 and exhibited some of the most extreme fire behavior ever observed in California. The Carr Fire caused eight fatalities, including two firefighters and two workers supporting firefighting efforts, burned over 1,100 homes in west Redding, caused the evacuation of one-third of the city, and produced an extreme fire vortex with an Enhanced Fujita scale rating between 136 to 165 mph, making it arguably the strongest tornado type event in state history, and one of the strongest documented cases in the world (Lareau et al. 2018).