California has had a long history with fire.

Fire Pre-Colonization

We don’t have many records of fires during a time before colonization. However, we know that Indigenous people used fire to their advantage. The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band has a story that the hummingbird brought fire to the people. Hazelnuts need fire in order to open up and germinate. Prescribed burns are also an indigenous way of reducing the intensity of wildfires. These beliefs/practices ended once colonization by the Spanish or Americans happened.

The Santiago Canyon Fire of 1889

It burned 300,000 acres in Orange, San Diego, Riverside County and was the first recorded in California history. Nobody was harmed however a lot of property and sheep perished in the fire. The fire started in the Santa Ana mountains and burned all the way to Oceanside. This was a completely man-made wildfire that flew out of control due to drought conditions high winds.

The August Complex Fire 2020

While the CZU fire was raging in Santa Cruz and San Mateo county another fire was raging in California. The August Complex fire started in Aug. 17th. It began in the Mendocino National Forest after the lightning storm that caused the CZU Complex Fire as well. This fire now holds the record for the most destructive fire with about 3.1 million acres destroyed, 12 deaths, and 3,900 structures destroyed. It caused the skies in the San Francisco Bay area to be a yellow/orange. Because of this fire about 18 national parks were shut down while this fire raged. Gov. Gavin Newsom used this fire as an example of how life-threating climate change is. This fire and the CZU Complex fire caused smoke to cover the entirety of California adding more to the fear that the COVID-19 panic brought to Californians.

The Camp Fire Butte County, 2018 

This is considered the deadly fire in California history with 85 deaths. While firefighters were fighting this fire the death toll kept climbing, this was because there was an increase in housing development in fire prone areas and the deadly affects of climate change. The fire started at 6:30am on Nov. 8th because of the Diablo winds, low humidity and high heat. The sparks flew directly into the electrical transmission which started the fire. After ravaging the area it was put out 17 days later.