Data report · CAL FIRE incidents · Updated October 4, 2026

California wildfires by county

Acres burned and the largest fires in every California county from 2013 through 2026, from the incidents CAL FIRE posts. Refreshed from the source, sortable, downloadable and free to cite.

Siskiyou County saw the most acres burn: about 948,489 acres from 2013 through 2025, followed by Trinity (858,607) and Tehama (689,040). Statewide, the incidents CAL FIRE posted burned 13.02 million acres in those years; 2020 was the worst (2.94 million), and the largest fire was the August Complex (includes Doe Fire): 1,032,648 acres in 2020.

Find your county Download the data (CSV)

By Sam Alishahi, independent insurance broker · Data through 2026-10-04

2013–2025

California wildfires, statewide

13.02 millionacres burned in the incidents CAL FIRE posted from 2013 through 2025

2.94 millionacres in 2020, the worst year

53%of those acres burned in just three years: 2018, 2020, 2021

1,032,648acres in the largest, the August Complex (includes Doe Fire) (2020)

By year

A few years do most of the burning

Thousands of acres burned per year in the incidents CAL FIRE posted.

By county

The 15 counties with the most acres burned, 2013–2025

Acres burned, with a fire that crossed county lines split evenly among the counties it reached.

The largest fires

The 15 largest wildfires since 2013

#	Fire	Counties	Year	Acres
1	August Complex (includes Doe Fire)	Mendocino, Humboldt, Trinity, Tehama, Glenn, Lake, Colusa	2020	1,032,648
2	Dixie Fire	Butte, Plumas, Shasta, Lassen, Tehama	2021	963,309
3	Park Fire	Butte, Tehama	2024	429,603
4	Ranch Fire (Mendocino Complex)	Colusa, Mendocino, Glenn, Lake	2018	410,203
5	SCU Lightning Complex	Santa Clara, San Joaquin, Contra Costa, Alameda, Stanislaus	2020	396,624
6	Creek Fire	Fresno, Madera	2020	379,895
7	LNU Lightning Complex	Napa, Solano, Lake, Sonoma, Yolo	2020	363,220
8	Thomas Fire	Santa Barbara, Ventura	2017	281,893
9	Rim Fire	Tuolumne	2013	257,314
10	Carr Fire	Shasta, Trinity	2018	229,651
11	Monument Fire	Trinity	2021	223,124
12	Caldor Fire	El Dorado, Alpine, Amador	2021	221,835
13	River Complex	Siskiyou, Trinity	2021	199,359
14	Chetco Fire		2017	191,125
15	Camp Fire	Butte	2018	153,336

What the data shows

California’s fire losses are lumpy. 2020 (2.94 million acres), 2021 (2.29 million acres), 2018 (1.62 million acres) account for 53% of the acres burned from 2013 through 2025; quieter years burn a fraction of that.

The biggest fires were in the north. The largest counties by acres burned were Siskiyou (948,489), Trinity (858,607), Tehama (689,040), Butte (677,389), Shasta (613,247), Fresno (576,743). Los Angeles County saw 294,804 acres burn over the period; its largest was the Woolsey Fire (2018, 96,949 acres).

Acres are only part of the insurance picture: a smaller fire in a dense neighborhood destroys more homes than a huge one in the backcountry. That is why insurers underwrite on each home’s own wildfire risk score, and why many California homes end up on the FAIR Plan with a difference-in-conditions policy (non-renewals by county; who insures homes in wildfire areas; the Safer from Wildfires discount).

Use this chart

Free to use with a link back. Paste this into your page or article:

<a href="https://alishahiinsurance.com/california-wildfires-by-county"><img src="https://alishahiinsurance.com/data/california-wildfires-by-county.svg" alt="Acres burned in wildfires by California county, 2013–2025" width="720" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a><br><small>Source: <a href="https://alishahiinsurance.com/california-wildfires-by-county">Alishahi Insurance analysis of CAL FIRE incident data</a></small>

All counties

Every county, sortable

Click a column to sort. Ranked by acres burned 2013–2025, with multi-county fires split evenly. Incidents counts every fire that reached the county.

Rank	County	Acres burned 2013–2025	Incidents	Largest fire	Acres 2026 so far
1	Siskiyou	948,489	119	River Complex (2021, 199,359 acres)	371
2	Trinity	858,607	43	August Complex (includes Doe Fire) (2020, 1,032,648 acres)	15
3	Tehama	689,040	98	August Complex (includes Doe Fire) (2020, 1,032,648 acres)	174
4	Butte	677,389	111	Dixie Fire (2021, 963,309 acres)	131
5	Shasta	613,247	115	Dixie Fire (2021, 963,309 acres)	686
6	Fresno	576,743	185	Creek Fire (2020, 379,895 acres)	4,476
7	Lake	527,394	77	August Complex (includes Doe Fire) (2020, 1,032,648 acres)	2,110
8	Santa Barbara	419,189	54	Thomas Fire (2017, 281,893 acres)	19,323
9	Plumas	394,841	20	Dixie Fire (2021, 963,309 acres)	276
10	Lassen	388,675	77	Dixie Fire (2021, 963,309 acres)	118,305
11	Tuolumne	327,537	54	Rim Fire (2013, 257,314 acres)	556
12	Mendocino	323,718	55	August Complex (includes Doe Fire) (2020, 1,032,648 acres)	3,249
13	Los Angeles	294,804	130	Woolsey Fire (2018, 96,949 acres)	9,475
14	Colusa	288,487	16	August Complex (includes Doe Fire) (2020, 1,032,648 acres)	406
15	San Bernardino	286,896	130	York Fire (2023, 93,078 acres)	681
16	Kern	286,799	181	Borel Fire (2024, 59,288 acres)	34,646
17	Ventura	276,088	53	Thomas Fire (2017, 281,893 acres)	2,380
18	Glenn	264,750	21	August Complex (includes Doe Fire) (2020, 1,032,648 acres)	0
19	Napa	261,138	40	LNU Lightning Complex (2020, 363,220 acres)	241
20	Mariposa	260,960	65	Ferguson Fire (2018, 96,901 acres)	9,914
21	Sonoma	255,004	34	LNU Lightning Complex (2020, 363,220 acres)	168
22	Humboldt	243,344	48	August Complex (includes Doe Fire) (2020, 1,032,648 acres)	7,758
23	Madera	241,953	93	Creek Fire (2020, 379,895 acres)	225
24	Modoc	239,851	62	July Complex (2020, 83,261 acres)	1,269
25	Riverside	239,233	359	Apple Fire (2020, 33,424 acres)	11,758
26	Monterey	231,829	85	Soberanes Fire (2016, 132,127 acres)	55,985
27	El Dorado	224,986	62	Caldor Fire (2021, 221,835 acres)	173
28	San Luis Obispo	206,679	131	Madre Fire (2025, 80,779 acres)	5,936
29	Tulare	144,093	89	Pier Fire (2017, 36,556 acres)	3,535
30	Alpine	143,902	5	Caldor Fire (2021, 221,835 acres)	65
31	Yolo	135,494	17	LNU Lightning Complex (2020, 363,220 acres)	957
32	Del Norte	133,561	9	Smith River Complex (2023, 95,107 acres)	0
33	San Diego	114,593	190	Valley Fire (2020, 16,390 acres)	10,982
34	Solano	112,124	47	LNU Lightning Complex (2020, 363,220 acres)	134
35	San Joaquin	111,029	26	SCU Lightning Complex (2020, 396,624 acres)	89
36	Placer	96,780	51	Mosquito Fire (2022, 76,788 acres)	112
37	Stanislaus	95,546	38	SCU Lightning Complex (2020, 396,624 acres)	502
38	Santa Clara	93,775	59	SCU Lightning Complex (2020, 396,624 acres)	429
39	Alameda	89,031	65	SCU Lightning Complex (2020, 396,624 acres)	1,260
40	Contra Costa	88,384	51	SCU Lightning Complex (2020, 396,624 acres)	304
41	Orange	81,997	17	Airport Fire (2024, 23,526 acres)	435
42	Amador	80,938	29	Caldor Fire (2021, 221,835 acres)	24
43	Kings	57,702	16	Garza Fire (2017, 48,660 acres)	1,697
44	Sierra	51,369	6	Bug Fire (2026, 93,733 acres)	61,066
45	Santa Cruz	43,949	11	CZU Lightning Complex (Including Warnella Fire) (2020, 86,509 acres)	0
46	San Mateo	43,456	7	CZU Lightning Complex (Including Warnella Fire) (2020, 86,509 acres)	0
47	Mono	41,179	21	Slinkard Fire (2017, 8,925 acres)	194
48	Inyo	39,914	22	Rock Fire (2026, 12,008 acres)	14,858
49	Merced	21,061	71	Planada Fire (2018, 4,563 acres)	3,414
50	Calaveras	18,756	47	TCU September Lightning Complex (2025, 13,869 acres)	10,479
51	Yuba	16,488	43	Cascade Fire (Wind Complex) (2017, 9,989 acres)	206
52	San Benito	11,102	43	Coyote Fire (2020, 1,485 acres)	34
53	Sacramento	10,599	38	Grant Fire (2020, 5,042 acres)	253
54	Nevada	7,356	28	River Fire (2021, 2,619 acres)	734
55	Marin	5,443	10	Woodward Fire (2020, 4,929 acres)	341
56	Sutter	2,930	4	West Butte Fire (2019, 1,350 acres)	0
57	Imperial	330	5	Carter Fire (2020, 275 acres)	404

Method and source

All figures come from the incidents CAL FIRE posts on its incident site, read year by year through its public incident list. Each incident appears once, with complexes listed as one incident, so statewide acres count each fire once. An incident that lists several counties counts in each county’s incident tally, and its acres are split evenly among those counties, a simplification that keeps county acres adding up to nearly the statewide total (fires listed without a California county are left out of county figures). These are the incidents CAL FIRE posts, not every fire: CAL FIRE’s annual statistics, which include all fires on every jurisdiction, report more acres. CAL FIRE began posting many more small incidents in 2024, so incident counts shouldn’t be compared across years; acres are dominated by the large fires it has always posted.

Free to use. Please cite “Alishahi Insurance analysis of CAL FIRE incident data” and link to this page. Download every county and year: CSV. Questions about the data: sam@alishahiinsurance.com.

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