The Californer - Five years since devastating 2020 fire siege: here's how California is better prepared for catastrophic wildfire

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Aug 15, 2025

Five years since devastating 2020 fire siege: here's how California is better prepared for catastrophic wildfire

What you need to know: Five years after a record-setting wildfire year in 2020, California has significantly boosted its firefighting capabilities and prevention efforts to adapt to new climate realities.

SACRAMENTO – Five years ago today, California was hit by the biggest wildfire year on record – and in the years since, Governor Gavin Newsom, the legislature and state fire officials have supercharged California's firefighting response and prevention efforts to match the new climate realities.

On August 15, 2020, an intense dry lightning storm sparked hundreds of wildfires across California. Over four months, more than 4.2 million acres burned, making it the largest wildfire year in recorded state history. Communities were destroyed, watersheds damaged, and ecosystems changed for generations.

The 2020 lightning siege claimed 31 lives, destroyed or damaged more than 10,000 structures, and produced California's first "gigafire" when the August Complex exceeded one million acres. The SCU and LNU Lightning Complexes ranked among the largest fires on record, while the Creek Fire in Fresno County became the biggest single (non-complex) fire in state history.

The disaster struck during the COVID-19 pandemic, stretching resources thin. In addition to local and federal fire agencies, CAL FIRE relied on mutual aid from across the nation, the California Conservation Corps, the California National Guard, and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).

Since then, CAL FIRE has dramatically expanded staffing and resources. Over 2,500 permanent positions have been added, the peak staffing period for seasonal personnel has extended from six to nine months, and the department has continued to diversify its hand crew programs to offset reductions in CDCR hand crews' availability.

"Five years ago, we entered what became California's biggest wildfire year on record – 31 lives were lost, thousands of homes were destroyed, and countless livelihoods were torn asunder. Since then, we've been hard at work doubling CAL FIRE's workforce, building the world's largest aerial firefighting force, equipping our teams with the latest technologies, and scaling prevention projects by 10x the amount from when I took office.

We have more to do but there is simply no jurisdiction on the planet that matches the scale and innovation of our efforts to protect people from catastrophic wildfire."

Governor Gavin Newsom

Last month, Governor Newsom unveiled the final two of the state's 16 Fire Hawk helicopters capable of night-flying missions and expanded water-dropping capacity – making it the largest such fleet in the world. Also this year, the Governor announced that the state's second C-130 Hercules airtanker is ready for firefighting operations. The state has dramatically expanded its wildfire operations intelligence through the Fire Integrated Real-Time Intelligence System Program (FIRIS), which now routinely flies over active wildfires to provide commanders on the ground with real-time fire activity.

Technology upgrades include 1,190 ALERTCalifornia cameras statewide that use AI to detect smoke and fires. These cameras have identified over 1,200 fires — beating 911 calls more than 30% of the time, helping crews respond faster. And AI is a key component of CAL FIRE's predictive mapping tool, which provides incident commanders with real-time projections of a wildfire's spread based on the current ground and weather conditions. Working with the Legislature, Governor Newsom also created a central hub – the Wildfire Threat Integration and Intelligence Center – to help gather, analyze and disseminate this radical increase in wildfire intelligence and data, providing state and local fire agencies with the most up-to-date analysis and forecasts on wildfire threats.

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"The 2020 fire siege taught us a lot," said Joe Tyler, Fire Chief and Director for CAL FIRE. "In the last five years we have improved our firefighting aviation fleet, increased the number of firefighters, increased our fire prevention and mitigation efforts, and embraced technology through remote sensors, mountain top cameras for fire detection, and the implementation of a Wildfire Threat Integration and Intelligence Center with CalOES to closely monitor changes in fire weather conditions such as lightning detection. However, we know the wildfire problem will not be solved with these solutions alone, which is why I encourage everyone to do their part to prepare your home, property and loved ones for wildfire today."

California's unprecedented wildfire readiness

As part of the state's ongoing investment in wildfire resilience and emergency response, CAL FIRE has significantly expanded its workforce over the past five years by adding an average of 1,800 full-time and 600 seasonal positions annually – nearly double that of the previous administration. Over the next four years and beyond, CAL FIRE will be hiring thousands of additional firefighters, natural resource professionals, and support personnel to meet the state's growing demands.

In recent months, the Governor has announced millions of dollars in investments to protect communities from wildfire – with $135 million available for new and ongoing prevention projects and $72 million going out the door to projects across the state. This is part of over $5 billion the Newsom administration, in collaboration with the legislature, has invested in wildfire and forest resilience since 2019. Additionally, 54 new vegetation management projects spanning nearly 12,000 acres have already been fast-tracked to approval under the streamlined process provided by the Governor's March 2025 state of emergency proclamation.

This builds on consecutive years of intensive and focused work by California to confront the severe ongoing risk of catastrophic wildfires. New, bold moves to streamline state-level regulatory processes builds long-term efforts already underway in California to increase wildfire response and forest management in the face of a hotter, drier climate.

The state's efforts are in stark contrast to the Trump administration's dangerous cuts to the U.S. Forest Service, which also threatens the safety of communities across the state. The U.S. Forest Service has lost 10% of all positions and 25% of positions outside of direct wildfire response – both of which are likely to impact wildfire response this year. In recent weeks, the Trump administration proposed a massive reorganization that would shutter the Pacific Regional Forest Service office and other regional Forest Service offices across the West, compounding staff cuts and voluntary resignations across the agency.

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As the conditions that fueled 2020 become more common, CAL FIRE urges residents to prepare: make an evacuation plan, pack a go bag, and sign up for local emergency alerts.

To learn more about preparedness, visit ReadyforWildfire.org.

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