By Joseph Serna
Los Angeles Times
No state had it worse with wildfires last year than California, a federal report confirmed.
According to the National Interagency Coordination Center’s year-end statistical roundup, more than 1.8 million acres of California were burned by wildfires in 2018, compared with last year’s total of 1.3 million acres, officials said.
“That’s the highest in the recorded history of California,” said Scott McLean, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
More than 100 people were killed and 17,000 homes and 700 businesses were destroyed in the state. Firefighters were called to more than 8,000 fires last year.
“It’s a surprise it’s that amount, but in a sense because of what I’ve seen over the last year, no it’s not,” McLean said. “It’s what we’ve been living through.”
The last time California had the most acres burned of any state in the nation was 2003, when a series of fires killed dozens and scorched more than 750,000 acres in a matter of weeks.
Last year’s Carr fire in Shasta and Trinity counties killed eight people and burned 230,000 acres in late July.
The Mendocino Complex fire in Lake and Mendocino counties blackened 459,000 acres and killed one firefighter. It was the largest fire in state history.
Then in early November, the Woolsey fire broke out in Ventura and Los Angeles counties while thousands of Northern California residents in Paradise fled for their lives from the Camp fire, which killed 85 people.
Those two fires burned a combined 250,000 acres and destroyed most of the homes lost in California last year.
About half the acres burned in the state in 2018 were on federal land with the rest on a mix of private, county and state lands, the report said. California accounted for 21 percent of all acres burned in the United States last year.
The fires were stoked by winds and fed on dead brush and trees left over from years of severe drought. This year’s wet winter is promoting even more fuel to grow, McLean said.
Federal and state fire agencies have said they are redoubling their efforts to reduce the wildfire threat in California with prescribed burns and treatments. In a report released this past week, Cal Fire listed dozens of forest management projects it wants to complete around vulnerable foothill and mountain communities to stave off the next Paradise or Santa Rosa.
“It’s not going to stop when we complete these projects,” McLean said. “This program has to continue forever. It’s an ongoing process from here on out.
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