2015 California wildfire season
| 2015 California wildfires | |
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Smoke from the 2015 California wildfires as seen from space, on August 18, 2015
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| Statistics | |
| Total fires | 8,745 |
| Total area | 893,362 acres (3,615 km2) |
| Fatalities | 2 firefighters and 7 civilians killed |
| Injuries | At least 1 |
| Season | |
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← 2014
2016 →
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The 2015 California wildfires were a series of wildfires that burned across the state of California during 2015, in which 8,745 fires burned a total area of 893,362 acres (3,615 km2).
On September 11, with the Butte Fire exploding from a size of 32,000 acres (129 km2) to 65,000 acres (263 km2), in the Amador and Calaveras counties, Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency.
The National Interagency Fire Center reported in mid-August that the 2015 fire season had been the most destructive since 2011. Nationwide, a total of 6,058,694 acres (24,519 km2) had burned, which is roughly triple the total land area burned from the same time span in 2014. By the end of August, in terms of the land area burned, the 2015 nationwide wildfire season had surpassed any other wildfire season in the last 10 years with 7,825,559 acres (31,669 km2) burned.
The season also proved to be a deadly one for firefighters battling the many blazes throughout the state. A United States Forest Service member from South Dakota died on July 31 of carbon monoxide poisoning while battling the Frog Fire in the Modoc National Forest. A second firefighter was killed on August 8 by a falling tree while battling the Sierra Fire south of Echo Summit. A 72-year-old handicapped woman was killed in her home by the fast moving Valley Fire.
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