Historical Fires of the North State

The Camp Fire started on November 8, 2018 in the North Fork of the Feather River Canyon in Butte County. A nearly 100 year old suspension hook on Tower 27/222 near Pulga in the Canyon finally broke at around 6:15 that windy morning. The hook was holding up high voltage power lines for PG & E; when it broke, the power lines it was holding up also broke. Those live, broken power lines crashed into the metal tower, which sent sparks and molten metal flying, which then ignited the brush below the transmission tower. It started near Camp Creek Road, which is how the fire got its name.

Fuels were exceptionally dry and the Jarbo Gap winds were gusting to 40 mph at that time, so the fire spread very quickly. It reached Paradise shortly before 8 am, then it rapidly burned through town. 85 people lost their lives that day in the fire, making it the deadliest wildfire in California's history, and the second deadliest in the United States in the past 100 years. It's the 7th deadliest wildfire ever in the U.S., and the world's 14th deadliest wildfire.

The Camp Fire was also the most destructive wildfire in California's history, destroying almost 10,000 Single Family homes, and almost 3700 Mobile Homes. It was the costliest natural disaster in the world for 2018.

This is the Butte County vs. PG & E case, which PG & E pled guilty to. I was retained by Butte Co. as a weather expert, and I testified in front of the Butte Co. Grand Jury in February 2020 about the drought, the very dry fuels, and the winds of the Feather River Canyon that initially pushed the Camp Fire... the Jarbo Gap winds.

This is a well written, detailed look at the start of the Camp Fire, and a very detailed look at PG & E's lack of maintenance on the 97 year old tower (and it's components) that failed and started the Camp Fire.

The official Butte County page for information on Debris Removal, Tree Removal, Maps, Housing/Shelter, and other things related to the recovery from the Camp Fire.

A detailed report about the set up before the fire began, and its rapid spread. It's main focus is the first 24 hours of the fire. This includes over 2200 observations/notes about the fire from 157 survivors (a 100 page list) This report is over 400 pages total, so it has a LOT of information.

This is a time lapse of the Camp Fire smoke plume on November 8, 2018, between 9 am and 9:51am. The view is looking north from Oroville.

Examining the destruction of the Camp Fire via drone. Drone flights happened on either November 16th or November 19th, 2018.

This page had before & after imagery of the destruction of the Camp Fire, 360 Imagery, Drone Shots, Structure Status, and updates on Hazardous Waste and Debris Cleanup. It now still has Structure Status and the cleanup Phase I & II maps, along with short drone video tours of Paradise made in late November of 2018. To see those drone videos, click the 'Drone Images' tab, and select a orange icon. The blue icons don't seem to work anymore.

False color hi-res image of the Camp Fire taken at 8:40 pm on November 8, 2018.

Land that is hotter because of fire or active burn scar show as Red on this image.

An interview with the Trustee overseeing compensation of PG & E fire victims.

PG & E's negligence may have sparked the Dixie and Zogg fires. Meanwhile, many Camp Fire survivors are still waiting for their share of PG & E's Fire Victim Trust.

The Carr Fire started on July 23rd, 2018 about 15 miles West of Redding, near the Carr Powerhouse at Whiskeytown Lake in Shasta County, as a tire on a trailer being towed on Hwy 299 blew out. The sparks created by the tire's metal rim on the road ignited nearby brush.

The fire burned around Whiskeytown Lake for the next couple of days, burning docks at the lake but sparing the town of French Gulch. However, it was he fourth day of the fire that would be its most terrifying day.

July 26th was a scorcher, even by Redding's blazing summer standards. With a record high temperature of 113° (but only 59° in Eureka), there was a 54° difference between the Valley and the Coast that day. That temperature difference made a light (5 to 15 mph) onshore breeze develop by the late afternoon, coming from the West. The Carr Fire used that to roar through Old Shasta and into west Redding. Around 7pm that evening, it spawned an EF-3 tornado near Keswick Reservoir. Another fire that produced a large fire vortex similar to this was the Wall Fire.

The Carr Fire ended up killing 8 people, and burning almost 230,00 acres (13th largest in California's history). It burned over 1600 structures, which is the 9th most in state history. Of those 1600 + structures, over 1000 were homes.

An intense account of just how terrifying the Carr Fire was when it roared out of the mountains of Shasta County and into Redding on the evening of July 26, 2018.

Excellent write up of the weather during the first few days of the Carr Fire, including good detail of the evening the fire roared into Redding. Includes detail of several burn overs during the Carr Fire, and links to 3 excellent videos of the fire tornado. This link will download the article to your computer/smartphone. Good paper.

Write up from the Mercury News of the burnovers from the Carr Fire when it roared into Redding on 7/26/18, and a nice, short explanation of the meteorology behind all of it.

Here's a 26 second video  of the Carr Fire vortex in Redding, on July 26, 2018. This vortex was as strong as an EF-3 tornado! This is not a time lapse.

And here's a 35 second dash cam video from a CAL FIRE truck of the vortex. This is not a time lapse.

The Carr and Camp fires of 2018 are what  really began the explosion of the AlertWildfire camera network.  As such, there were only a few cameras around in 2018, which is why there are few time lapses of those particular fires. One of the early cameras installed was in Oroville, and it captured an amazing time lapse of a Fire Vortex on the Wall Fire (see below).

This is a technical paper written mainly about the meteorology of the Carr Fire Vortex, but it also breaks down conditions leading up to and during the Carr fire.

This is a link to a video of Dr. Lareau presenting this paper. This is easier to understand than just the technical paper. Very interesting.

Here's another write-up of the Carr Fire Vortex, but this is not a technical paper.

Agencies that can help with recovering from the Carr Fire, like legal, insurance, and emotional help, and more.

Updates on the recovery process from the Carr Fire at Whiskeytown Lake.

The Rattlesnake Fire was started by an arsonist on July 9, 1953 in the Coast Range of western Glenn County. It burned only 1300 acres, but it makes this list because a wind shift caused the fire to suddenly reverse direction... trapping and killing 15 volunteer firefighters. This fire prompted big changes in wildfire training and standards. It's the 6th deadliest wildfire in our state's history.

This article summarizes the events of that evening on July 9, 1953, when 15 firefighters lost their lives in western Glenn County. It also talks about how this fire serves as a learning lesson to new firefighting recruits.

This article talks about the New Tribes Mission, and the volunteers who were fighting the Rattlesnake Fire when the wind shifted, and overtook them.

https://www.nwcg.gov/sites/default/files/wfldp/docs/sr-rs-usfs-meteorological-conditions-rattlesnake-fire-1954.pdf" rel="noopener" target="_blank">This is a writeup of the weather conditions of the Rattlesnake Fire in 1953. The author had access to very little weather data (no satellite or internet data back then!), so he had to make many assumptions. With the benefit of data he probably didn't have, it seems clear to me that this was caused by a strong onshore (Delta Breeze) push. There's a clear Summer pattern of southeast afternoon winds at Alder Springs (near the fire), which shift to northwest shortly after sunset. Those northwest winds at night originate from the Pacific, spill over Mendocino Pass, and usually range from 5-15 mph.
Wind data from 1953 is hard to find, but there is temperature data. Travis AFB in Fairfield saw a temperature drop of 8° on the day of the fire, and Sacramento saw a 7° drop. In July, that usually happens with an increase in the Delta Breeze. That strong onshore push spilled over Mendocino Pass, would have been significantly stronger than usual that evening, and is likely what caused the winds to suddenly roar from the northwest on that deadly night.

This is a short description of the events of the fire, but the Maps, Research, and Stand dropdowns below have many interesting links about the fire.

The Fountain Fire started near Round Mountain (about 30 miles northeast of Redding) in Shasta County, not far from where the historic old drinking fountain was, on August 20, 1992. That was the 12th day in a row of triple digit high temperatures in Redding, and while Round Mountain would have likely been a bit cooler than Redding, it still would have also endured nearly 2 straight weeks of above normal blazing August heat. A cool front moved through that afternoon, bringing both relief from the heat, and a gusty south wind. That wind helped push the fire in it's early growth.

The Fountain Fire burned 64,000 acres and around 300 homes, and is believed to have been started by an arsonist... although that has never definitively been proven.

Talking about the Fountain Fire in 2007...15 years afterwards.

After the devastating Fountain Fire in 1992, the burned area was actively reforested with very good results.

This article talks about the Fountain Fire and the progress made in putting it out. It was written 4 days after the fire started.

The first of two terrible fires in Jones Valley (about 15 miles north east of Redding) in 5 years (the other one was the Bear Fire of 2004... a different Bear Fire than the Butte County fire of 2020).

The Jones Valley Fire destroyed over 100 homes (the Bear Fire destroyed "dozens" more), and was pushed by North winds gusting up to 40 mph. It started in the early morning of October 16, 1999 near Shasta Lake. There is no official cause of the fire, but it is believed to be from a camp fire near Shasta Lake that wasn't extinguished correctly and re-ignited. 1 firefighter was killed. It burned over 950 structures, which is the 18th most in California's history.

A fast moving fire roars through Jones Valley (a little north of Redding, at Shasta Lake) early one October morning in 1999. 

Checking in on the recovery process in Jones Valley in 2008,  after both the Jones Valley and Bear (different Bear Fire than above) fires burned through Jones Valley.