California on fire
More than a million acres have burned in particularly bad years, and 2018 was one of the most destructive in recent history. These numbers combine state and federal land.
Wildfires took scores of lives in California in 2018, the deadliest fire year in the state’s recent history. Most of those deaths were related to the blaze that destroyed the Northern California town of Paradise. The numbers include people responding to the fires.
The firefighting tab
Expenses nearly always exceed the annual budget for Cal Fire. The state’s share of costs for the most recent fires has not yet been determined.