The August Complex Fire - Fighting the Largest Fire in California History

Nonprofits / Activism
Published on Nov 1, 2020
The August Complex Fire began on August 16, 2020 after storms created hundreds of lightning strikes in the region. Six fires started from the lightning and grew. In just four days 35 fires were burning in the extremely dry forests of northern California. The fires roared through the crispy-dry brush and forests, eventually burning into one mega-fire, with more than 1 million acres burning across portions of Mendocino, Humboldt, Trinity, Tehama, Glenn, Lake and Colusa counties. The giant fire burned on the Mendocino, Shasta Trinity and Six Rivers National Forests.
As the fire consumed the landscape, 3,022 people were evacuated, one firefighter was tragically killed, and an estimated 353 homes and 528 structures were burned.
The Great Basin Team 1, under the command of Incident Commander Evans Kuo, assumed management of the northwest zone of the fire working in partnership with three other Type 1 teams.