The August Complex became California's largest recorded wildfire. In early September 2020, a combination of a record-breaking heat wave and strong katabatic winds, (including the Jarbo, Diablo, and Santa Ana) caused explosive fire growth. On August 22, President Donald Trump issued a major disaster declaration (DR-4558), which provides Individual Assistance and/or Public Assistance. Response and evacuations were complicated by a historic heatwave and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. On August 18, Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency, and on August 19, 2020, reported that the state was battling 367 known fires, many sparked by intense thunderstorms on August 16–17 caused by moisture from the remnants of Tropical Storm Fausto. The intensity of the fire season has been attributed to a combination of more than a century of poor forest management and higher temperatures resulting from climate change. The fires destroyed over 10,000 structures and cost over $12.079 billion (2020 USD) in damages, including over $10 billion in property damage and $2.079 billion in fire suppression costs. ![]() California's August Complex fire has been described as the first "gigafire", burning over 1 million acres across seven counties, an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. By the end of the year, 9,917 fires had burned 4,397,809 acres (1,779,730 ha), more than 4% of the state's roughly 100 million acres of land, making 2020 the largest wildfire season recorded in California's modern history (according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection), though roughly equivalent to the pre-1800 levels which averaged around 4.4 million acres yearly and up to 12 million in peak years. The 2020 California wildfire season, part of the 2020 Western United States wildfire season, was a record-setting year of wildfires in California. An Augsatellite image of the wildfires burning in Northern California, covering a significant portion of California and nearby states. If you would like to obtain information about a CAL FIRE fire burning in your area that is not included on this web site, please contact the CAL FIRE Unit that services your county.Five of the twenty largest wildfires in California history were part of the 2020 wildfire season. However, the majority of those fires are contained quickly and no information will generally be provided on these incidents at this site if the fire burns less than 10 acres. Fires occur throughout the State within CAL FIRE jurisdiction on a daily basis during fire season. ![]() If you live in a wildland area always have an evacuation plan in place. Please refer to the fire information phone numbers provided on this site, and website links for additional information, and monitor your local radio stations for emergency broadcasts. The sites are not meant to provide up-to-the-minute evacuation or fire behavior information. Please use the information on these pages only as a reference. As battling a fire, or handling any other disaster is the priority, updates to these sites cannot be guaranteed on a set time schedule. All of our information comes from the firelines and must be approved by the Incident Commander in charge of managing the incident prior to release. ![]() This site provides general information concerning an incident. We make every effort to provide accurate and complete information, however the data is subject to review and change. ![]() Information presented on the departments website is a representation of the existing wildfire situation, based on the information readily available to CAL FIRE.
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