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The 2018 wildfire season was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire season ever recorded in California, with a total of 8,527 fires burning an area of 1,893,913 acres (766,439 ha), the largest area of burned acreage recorded in a fire season, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) and the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), as of December 21.[1][2][3] Through the end of August 2018, Cal Fire alone spent $432 million on operations.[17] As of May 2019, insurance claims related to this fire season had reached $12 billion, most related to the Camp Fire in Butte County.[18]

In mid-July to August 2018, a series of large wildfires erupted across California, mostly in the northern part of the state, including the destructive Carr Fire and the Mendocino Complex Fire. On August 4, 2018, a national disaster was declared in Northern California, due to the extensive wildfires burning there.[19]

In November 2018, strong winds aggravated conditions in another round of large, destructive fires that occurred across the state. This new batch of wildfires included the Woolsey Fire and the Camp Fire, which killed at least 85 people with 2 still unaccounted for as of 17 February 2019.[20] It destroyed more than 18,000 structures, becoming both California's deadliest and most destructive wildfire on record.

The Firestone fire caused more than $3.5 billion (2018 USD) in damages, including $1.792 billion in fire suppression costs.[4][5][6][7] The Mendocino Complex Fire burned more than 459,000 acres (186,000 ha), becoming the largest complex fire in the state's history, with the complex's Ranch Fire surpassing the Thomas Fire and the Santiago Canyon Fire of 1889 to become California's single-largest recorded wildfire.[21][22]