Paradise is a town in Butte County, California, United States in the Sierra Nevada foothills above the northeastern Sacramento Valley. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 26,218. On November 8, 2018, a major wildfire, the Camp Fire, destroyed most of Paradise and much of the adjacent communities of Magalia, Butte Creek Canyon, and Concow. After the Camp Fire, the population declined by more than 90%. In January 2019, the state of California reported 4,600 residents, and a door-to-door count in April 2019 found 2,034.
The Cedar Fire was a massive, highly-destructive wildfire, which burned 273,246 acres (1,106 km2) of land in San Diego County, California, during October and November 2003. The fire's rapid growth was driven by the Santa Ana wind, causing the fire to spread at a rate of 3,600 acres (15 km2) per hour. By the time the fire was fully contained on November 4, it had destroyed 2,820 buildings and killed 15 people, including one firefighter. Hotspots continued to burn within the Cedar Fire's perimeter until December 5, 2003, when the fire was fully brought under control.
The Old Fire was a large complex wildfire that started on October 25, 2003, near Old Waterman Canyon Road and California State Route 18 in the San Bernardino Mountains, in San Bernardino County, Southern California, United States. The Old Fire caused at least $1.2 billion in damages.
The Santiago Canyon Fire of 1889 was a massive wildfire in California, which burned large parts of Orange County, Riverside County, and San Diego County during the last week of September 1889. The fire reportedly started in Fremont Canyon, a canyon close to what today is Irvine Lake. Until 2018, it was possibly the single largest wildfire in the recorded history of California, with at least 300,000 acres (1,200 km2) of land burned. In mid-August 2018, the Ranch Fire in the Mendocino Complex Fire surpassed the Santiago Canyon Fire's assumed acreage.
The Zaca Fire was a wildfire that began burning in the San Rafael Mountains, northeast of the Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara County, California. It was also the single largest wildfire of the 2007 California wildfire season. The fire started on July 4, 2007, and by August 31, it had burned over 240,207 acres (972.083 km2), making it California's second largest fire in recorded history at that time after the Cedar Fire of 2003. As of 2020, it is California's tenth-largest recorded fire in modern history. The fire was contained on September 4, 2007, with the fire being brought under control on October 29, 2007.
The Harris Fire was a major wildfire in southern San Diego County that began on October 21, 2007, which burned 90,440 acres (366.0 km2) in southeastern San Diego County before it was contained on November 5. Hotspots persisted until the fire was extinguished on November 16, making the Harris Fire the last of the October 2007 California wildfires to be extinguished. As the Harris Fire burned, it traveled in a northwest direction from its starting point at Harris Ranch Road in the town of Potrero, located in the far south of San Diego County, near Tecate, Mexico. The wildfire was the second-largest one of the October 2007 California wildfires, behind only the Witch Fire. The cause of the Harris Fire is unknown. The Harris Fire was the deadliest one of the October 2007 wildfires, killing eight people.
The Witch Creek Fire, also known as the Witch Fire and the Witch-Guejito–Poomacha Complex Fire, was the second-largest wildfire of the 2007 California wildfire season, and the largest one of the October 2007 California wildfires. Although the Witch Creek Fire was individually smaller than the Zaca Fire of 2007, burning 197,990 acres (801 km2) acres alone, after merging with the Poomacha and McCoy Fires, the Witch–Guejito–Poomacha Complex Fire had a total burn area of 247,800 acres (1,003 km2), surpassing the Zaca Fire to become the largest complex fire of 2007. Initially igniting in Witch Creek Canyon, near Santa Ysabel, the Witch Creek Fire rapidly spread westward, fanned by powerful Santa Ana winds, and consumed large portions of San Diego County. On October 25, the Witch Fire merged with the Poomacha Fire to the north, near Palomar Mountain, before also merging with the smaller McCoy Fire on the next day. The Witch–Poomacha Complex Fire was the second-to-last fire of the 2007 October wildfires to be extinguished, with the Poomacha Fire being contained on November 13. The last remaining fire, the Harris Fire, was fully extinguished on November 16. During its duration, 80–100 feet-high flames were reported by fire officials in the Witch Fire, and the Witch Fire exhibited the characteristics of a firestorm at its height.
The 2008 California wildfire season was one of the most devastating since the turn of the 21st Century. While 6,255 fires occurred, about two-thirds as many as in 2007, the total area exceeded that of the previous years, far exceeding the total area of each year prior to 2007. Throughout the year, 1,593,690 acres (6,449.4 km2) of land were burned.
Adventist Health Feather River, also known as Feather River Hospital, is a 101-bed acute care hospital located in the town of Paradise, in Butte County, California, with a wide array of outpatient departments and services designed to meet the health care needs of Paradise, Magalia, and neighboring communities. It was severely damaged in the November 2018 Camp Fire and is currently closed.
The October 2007 California wildfires, also known as the Fall 2007 California firestorm, were a series of about thirty wildfires that began igniting across Southern California on October 20. At least 1,500 homes were destroyed and approximately 972,147 acres of land was burned from Santa Barbara County to the U.S.–Mexico border, surpassing the October 2003 California wildfires in scope, which were estimated to have burned 800,000 acres (3,200 km2). The wildfires killed a total of 14 people, with nine of them dying directly from the fires; 160 others were injured, including at least 124 firefighters. At their height, the raging fires were visible from space. These fires included the vast majority of the largest and deadliest wildfires of the 2007 California wildfire season. The only wildfire in 2007 that surpassed any of the individual October 2007 fires in size was the Zaca Fire.
The 2003 California wildfires were a series of wildfires that were active in the state of California during the year 2003. In dry January 2003 has 31 days straight with no rain in Southern California, and wet mid February 2003 arrives in California. In total, there were 9,116 fires that burned 1,020,460 acres (4,129.7 km2) of land.
In terms of property damage, 2017 was the most destructive wildfire season on record in California at the time, surpassed by only the 2018 season and the 2020 season, with a total of 9,560 fires burning 1,548,429 acres (6,266.27 km2) of land, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, including five of the 20 most destructive wildland-urban interface fires in the state's history. Throughout 2017, the fires destroyed or damaged more than 10,000 structures in the state, a higher tally than the previous nine years combined. State data showed that the large wildfires killed 47 people – 45 civilians and 2 firefighters – almost higher than the previous 10 years combined. The total property damage and total amount of burned land were both surpassed by the 2018 California wildfires.
The October 2017 Northern California wildfires, also known as the Northern California firestorm, North Bay Fires, and the Wine Country Fires were a series of 250 wildfires that started burning across the state of California, United States, beginning in early October. Twenty-one became major fires that burned at least 245,000 acres (99,148 ha).
The Labor Day brush fire was a small brush fire that burned parts of Rancho Peñasquitos and Black Mountain Open Space Park in September 2005, during the 2005 California wildfire season. Despite its small size, the brush fire was the worst wildfire to affect San Diego City in two years, since the Cedar Fire of 2003. The wildfire resulted in 6 injuries, but did not result in structural damages. The brush fire was determined to have been started by a teenage boy, who was subsequently arrested.
A series of 29 wildfires ignited across Southern California in December 2017. Six of the fires became significant wildfires, and led to widespread evacuations and property losses. The wildfires burned over 307,900 acres (1,246 km2), and caused traffic disruptions, school closures, hazardous air conditions, and power outages; over 230,000 people were forced to evacuate. The largest of the wildfires was the Thomas Fire, which grew to 281,893 acres (1,140.78 km2), and became the largest wildfire in modern California history, until it was surpassed by the Ranch Fire in the Mendocino Complex, in the following year.
The 2018 wildfire season was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire season in California history. It was also the largest on record at the time, now third after the 2020 and 2021 California wildfire seasons. In 2018, there were a total of 103 confirmed fatalities, 24,226 structures damaged or destroyed, and 8,527 fires burning 1,975,086 acres (799,289 ha), about 2% of the state's 100 million acres of land. Through the end of August 2018, Cal Fire alone spent $432 million on operations. The catastrophic Camp Fire alone killed at least 85 people, destroyed 18,804 buildings and caused $16.5 billion in property damage, while overall the fires resulted in at least $26.347 billion in property damage and firefighting costs, including $25.4 billion in property damage and $947 million in fire suppression costs.
The Camp Fire was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California's history, and the most expensive natural disaster in the world in 2018 in terms of insured losses.
