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List of California wildfires

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California has dry, windy, and often hot weather conditions from late Spring through Autumn that can produce moderate to devastating wildfires. At times, these wildfires are fanned or made worse from strong, dry winds, known as Diablo winds in the northern part of the state and Santa Ana Winds to the south. Wildfires in California are growing more dangerous and costly. U.S. taxpayers are paying about $3 billion a year to fight wildfires, triple what it cost in the 1990s, and big fires can lead to billions of dollars in property losses.[1]

The following is a list of major wildfires of various sizes that have occurred in California.

A wildfire in California

Pre-1900

  • Tojunga Canyon Fire (1878)
  • Mount Tamalpais Fire (1881)
  • Ortega Hill Fire (1888)
  • Sycamore Fire (1888)
  • Santiago Canyon Fire (1889)

1910s

1920s

  • Berkeley Fire (1923)
  • Freson Canyon Fire (1928)
  • Gypsum Fire (1929)
  • Great Mill Valley Fire (1929)

1930s

1940s

  • San Marcos Pass Fire (1940)
  • Hauser Creek Fire (1943)
  • Mount Rancheria Fire (1948)
  • Green River Fire (1948)

1950s

  • Rattlesnake Fire (1953)
  • Refugio Road Fire (1955)
  • Inaja Fire (1956)
  • Steward Fire (1958)
  • Decker Fire (1959)
  • Talega Fire (1959)

1960s

  • Bel Air Fire (1961)
  • Coyote Canyon Fire (1964)
  • Hanley-Nuns Canyon Fire (1964)
  • Smith's Market Fire (1964)
  • Wellman Canyon Fire (1966)
  • Loop Fire (1966)
  • Paseo Grande Fire (1967)
  • Canyon Inn Fire (1968)

1970s

  • Laguna Fire (1970)
  • Oakland Hills Wildfire (1970)
  • Romero Canyon Fire (1971)
  • San Clemente Fire (1976)
  • Sycamore Canyon Fire (1977)
  • Hondo Canyon Fire (1977)
  • Honda Canyon Fire (Vandenberg AFB) (1977)
  • Eagle Canyon Fire (1979)

1980s

  • Wildcat Canyon Fire (1980)
  • Panorama Fire (1980)
  • Indian Fire (1980)
  • Gypsum Canyon Fire (1982)
  • Mount Baldy Fire (1984)
  • Wheeler Fire (1985)
  • Normal Heights Fire (1985)
  • Silverado Canyon Fire (1987)
  • Pebble Beach Fire (1987)
  • Lauder Fire (1987)
  • Northern California Fire Siege (1987)

1990s

Remains of houses destroyed in the 1991 Oakland firestorm.
  • Leona Canyon Fire (1990)
  • Carbon Canyon Fire (1990)
  • Yorba Fire (1990)
  • Chino Hills Fire (1990)
  • Arch Rock Fire (1990)
  • Painted Cave Fire (1990)
  • Oakland Hills firestorm (1991)
  • Fountain Fire (1992)
  • Green Meadow Fire (1993) [2]
  • Marre Fire (1993)
  • Laguna Beach Fire (1993)
  • Ortega Fire (1993)
  • October 1993 California wildfires (1993)
  • Highway 41 Fire (1994)
  • Mount Vision fire (1995)
  • Highway 58 Fire (1996)
  • Ackerson Complex Fires (1996)
  • Baker Canyon Fire (1997)
  • Narrows Fire (1997)
  • Hopper Fire (1997)
  • Logan Fire (1997)
  • Lake Wohlford fire (1997)
  • Santa Anita II Fire (1999)
  • Kirk Complex fire (1999)
  • Megram Fire (1999)
  • La Jolla Fire (1999)

2000s

Satellite image of the 2003 Cedar Fire. The Cedar Fire was the largest wildfire in California history.
The Summer 2008 wildfires were widespread and deadly, with at least 3,596 wildfires of various origins burning throughout Northern and Central California, for around 4 months.

2010s

Satellite image of the wildfires in Southern California and Baja California, on May 15, 2014. 2014 was one of California's worst wildfire seasons on record.

Areas of repeated ignition

In some parts of California, fires can sometimes recur in areas that have had past histories of fires. Examples of this are in Oakland, which fires of various size and ignition occurred in 1923, 1931, 1933, 1937, 1946, 1955, 1960, 1961, 1968, 1970, 1980, 1990, 1991 , 1995, 2002, and 2008.[5][6] Other examples being Orange County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County, and Los Angeles County. In the case of Orange and San Bernardino, these two counties share a county border that runs north to south through the Chino Hills State Park, with the parks landscape ranging from large green Coastal sage scrub, Grassland, and Woodland, to areas of brown sparsely dense vegetation made drier by droughts or hot summers. The valley's grass and barren land can become easily susceptible to dry spells and drought, therefor making it a prime spot for brush fires and Conflagration, which many have occurred since 1914. Hills and canyons that have seen brush or wildfires in one or similar locations have occurred in 1914, the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and into today.[7]

On occasion, freak lighting strikes from Thunderstorms may also inadvertently spark wildfires in areas that have seen past ignition. Examples of this are the 1999 Megram Fire, the Summer 2008 California wildfires, among others.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Wildfires are growing more costly". NBC News. 2014-05-14.
  2. ^ Reed, Mack and Alvarez, Fred (November 03, 1993) "Green Meadow Wildfire Flares Again" Los Angeles Times
  3. ^ "Morgan Fire: Spread of blaze has 'stopped' around 3,700 acres, fire official says". mercurynews.com. Retrieved 10 September 2013.
  4. ^ "MORGAN FIRE". cdfdata.fire.ca.gov. Retrieved 9 September 2013.
  5. ^ http://montclairoak.com/tag/oakland-hills-fire/
  6. ^ http://www2.oaklandnet.com/oakca1/groups/fire/documents/webcontent/oak042168.pdf
  7. ^ http://www.hillsforeveryone.org/projects/fire-files/A-100-Year-History-of-Wildfires-Near-CHSP.pdf
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