Prior to the Woolsey Fire, the biggest park fire was the 1993 Green Meadows Fire at 38,000 acres. The Woolsey Fire burned more acres within SMMNRA than any other fire in recorded history. Most of Western Town at Paramount Ranch was destroyed, as well as the 1927 Peter Strauss Ranch house, the Rocky Oaks ranger residence and museum building, the Arroyo Sequit ranger residence, and most of the UCLA La Kretz Field Station. More than 21,000 acres of National Park Service land burned, which represents 88% of NPS land within SMMNRA. The fire burned almost 100,000 acres of land managed by several partners, including the National Park Service, California State Parks, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SMMNRA) sustained significant damage from the Woolsey Fire. It then crossed the 101 Freeway between the San Fernando Valley and the Conejo Valley and headed into the Santa Monica Mountains. Santa Ana winds pushed the fire in a southerly direction the first day. 8, 2018, near the Santa Susana Field Laboratory above Simi Valley, near the boundary between Los Angeles and Ventura counties. The destructive Woolsey Fire started on Nov. On Saturday morning, President Trump blamed “gross mismanagement of the forests” for the fires and threatened to withhold federal funding from California.National Park Service rangers assessing federal property post-Woolsey Fire. More than 1.3 million acres have burned throughout the state this year and more than 8.3 million acres across the United States as a whole. According to Cal Fire, California has seen almost double the area burned across its service territory than at the same time last year.

“This is just *one example* of how a changing climate has affected key risk factors during what has already become California’s most destructive wildfire in history,” he wrote.Īs such, fire officials no longer talk about fire seasons but fire years. Warmer temperatures have caused forests in the western United States to dry out, killing off 129 million trees in California alone, leaving many regions littered in dry fuel.Īs climate scientist Daniel Swain wrote in this excellent thread, autumns in California are now both warmer and drier. Human activity is also changing the climate. Active fire suppression tactics have also prevented smaller fires from burning, allowing fuel to accumulate and drive surging conflagrations. Humans already ignite the vast majority of wildfires. This increases the likelihood of people igniting fires and the damage from the fires that do occur. However, the massive wildfires we’ve seen in recent years are hardly natural humans have made them worse at every step.įor one thing, people are building increasingly closer to grasslands and forests that regularly burn. They provide a vital service to forests and grasslands, clearing out decaying brush and helping plants germinate. And it is poised to get worse in many parts of the state as average temperatures rise with climate change.īut remember that wildfires are a natural part of the ecosystem.

You can see the massive smoke clouds in this satellite photo (the red is infrared heat, not actual flames): “The town is devastated, everything is destroyed,” California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) spokesperson Scott Maclean told Reuters.

Paradise, home to 26,000, was almost entirely laid to waste by the fire. The fire has killed at least 29 people and incinerated more than 6,400 structures. At one point, it was growing at a rate of one football field per second. The Camp Fire has so far torched more than 113,000 acres since igniting Thursday morning. Already more than 300,000 people have been forced to evacuate statewide. The Woolsey Fire in Southern California has taken lives and property too, and could still spread further. And it’s just one of several major infernos that have been raging in the Golden State as late-season winds have picked up and spread walls of flames. The Camp Fire burning near Chico, California, is now the most destructive (and tied for deadliest) fire in state history.

California fire map july 2018