The 2015 wildfire season was the largest in Washington state history, with more than one million acres burning across the state from June to September. As many as 3,000 firefighters including 800 Washington National Guard members were deployed to fight the fires. The 17th Field Artillery Brigade of the United States Army also deployed 200 soldiers from Joint Base Lewis–McChord to help fight the fires.
The 2016 Washington wildfires season were a series of wildfires in the U.S. state of Washington, notable because of brush fires near the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, and because of brush fires near Spokane, Washington.
The Jolly Mountain fire was a wildfire in Wenatchee National Forest, Kittitas County, Washington, that began with lightning strikes August 11, 2017 and burned for over three months. Fires burned in the upper reaches of the Teanaway River a few miles east of Cle Elum Lake.
The 2017 Washington wildfires were a series of wildfires that burned over the course of 2017, a year that set weather records for heat and aridity in both Western Washington and Eastern Washington.
The 2018 Washington wildfire season officially began June 1, 2018. A statewide state of emergency was declared by Governor Jay Inslee on July 31.
The 2019 Washington wildfire season officially began in March 2019.
The Soledad Fire was a wildfire that burned 1,525 acres (617 ha) south of Agua Dulce and northeast of Santa Clarita in Los Angeles County, California in the United States during the 2020 California wildfire season. The fire started on July 5, 2020 and caused the complete closure of State Route 14 in both directions throughout the day as the fire grew to 1,498 acres. The fire also at a point threatened over 4,795 structures, although only 9 homes were formally threatened by the direct fireline. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation.
The Apple Fire was a wildfire that burned during the 2020 California wildfire season in Cherry Valley south of Oak Glen and north of Beaumont and Banning in Riverside County, California in the United States. The fire ignited on Friday, July 31, 2020 as three separate smaller blazes within the rural canyons along Oak Glen Road before merging and rapidly expanded to 1,900 acres (769 ha) and destroyed at least one home and two outbuildings in the Cherry Valley area. It now covers at least 33,424 acres (13,526 ha) and created "a plume of smoke so massive that it generated its own winds." The fire was sparked by a diesel-burning vehicle that emitted burning carbon.
The Evans Canyon Fire, ignited about eight miles north of Naches, Washington, during the afternoon of August 31, 2020. The wildfire expanded by 8,900 acres to almost 13,000 acres between September 1 and 2, then grew to 30,000 acres on September 2. Evacuations of over 400 homes began on September 1 and the entire Yakima River Canyon was closed to recreation, while the city of Selah was threatened. By September 2,900 homes had been evacuated. By the morning of September 3, it had grown to 52,000 acres, 900 homes were ordered evacuated, State Route 821 in the Yakima River Canyon was closed down, and air quality in Yakima County was deemed unhealthy due to smoke. By September 6, it had burned almost 76,000 acres and was 40% contained.
The 2020 Washington Labor Day fires were part of the 2020 wildfires in the U.S. state of Washington. The Labor Day fires began on September 7, 2020, driven by high winds and some of which were sparked by downed power lines. More than 330,000 acres (130,000 ha) burned across the state of Washington, a one-day total greater than any of the last 12 entire fire seasons, according to the governor's office, and larger than the state's largest single fire, the Carlton Complex Fire of 2014.
The North Complex Fire was a massive wildfire complex that burned in the Plumas National Forest in Northern California in the counties of Plumas and Butte. 21 fires were started by lightning on August 17, 2020; by September 5, all the individual fires had been put out with the exception of the Claremont and Bear Fires, which merged on that date, and the Sheep Fire, which was then designated a separate incident. On September 8, strong winds caused the Bear/Claremont Fire to explode in size, rapidly spreading to the southwest. On September 8, 2020, the towns of Berry Creek and Feather Falls were immediately evacuated at 3:15 PM PDT with no prior warning, By September 9, 2020, the towns of Berry Creek and Feather Falls had been leveled, with few homes left standing. The fire threatened the city of Oroville, before its westward spread was stopped. The fire killed 16 people and injured more than 100. Among the 16 fatalities was a 16-year-old boy. The complex burned an estimated 318,935 acres (129,068 ha), and was 100% contained on December 3. The fire was managed by the U.S. Forest Service in conjunction with Cal Fire, with the primary incident base in Quincy. The North Complex Fire was the sixth-largest in California's modern history, and the deadliest fire in the 2020 California wildfire season.
The Western United States experienced a series of major wildfires in 2020. Severe August thunderstorms ignited numerous wildfires across California, Oregon, and Washington, followed in early September by additional ignitions across the West Coast. Fanned by strong, gusty winds and fueled by hot, dry terrains, many of the fires exploded and coalesced into record-breaking megafires, burning more than 10.2 million acres of land, mobilizing tens of thousands of firefighters, razing over ten thousand buildings, and killing at least 37 people. The fires caused over $19.884 billion in damages, including $16.5 billion in property damage and $3.384 billion in fire suppression costs. Climate change and poor forest management practices contributed to the severity of the wildfires.
The 2021 Washington wildfire season officially began in March 2021. By late April, all of Eastern Washington had been classified by the United States Drought Monitor as "abnormally dry" with moderate to severe drought conditions. The state had more than 630 wildfires by the first week of July, on par with the state's record 2015 wildfire season.
The Lava Fire was a wildfire that burned 26,409 acres (10,687 ha) along the slopes of Mount Shasta near Weed, California during the 2021 California wildfire season. The fire started on June 25, 2021 and was fully contained on September 3, 2021. The fire destroyed 23 buildings, including 14 houses, as well as damaged an additional building.
The Dixie Fire was an enormous wildfire in Butte, Plumas, Lassen, Shasta, and Tehama Counties, California. It was named after Dixie Road, near where the fire started in Butte County. The fire began in the Feather River Canyon near Cresta Dam on July 13, 2021, and burned 963,309 acres (389,837 ha) before being 100% contained on October 25, 2021. It was the largest single wildfire in recorded California history, and the second-largest wildfire overall. The fire damaged or destroyed several small towns or communities, including Greenville on August 4, Canyondam on August 5, and Warner Valley on August 12.
The 2020 Maricopa County wildfires were a series of major and non-major wildfires that took place in Maricopa County, Arizona, from the month of May to the month of October. In the year 2020, Arizona saw one of its worst fire seasons in the states history. Due to the lack of precipitation needed in Arizona, the state fell into an ongoing drought from late 2020 and 2021. High winds were also present during the summer when fire season is mostly active in the state. These factors led to the wildfires in Maricopa County to be destructive and costly.
The Range 12 fire was started on July 30, 2016 in eastern Washington at the Yakima Training Center east of Yakima, Washington near Moxee, Washington. It quickly grew to over 176,000 acres (71,000 ha) to cover parts of Yakima County and Benton County. The fire was the third in recent years to affect the area surrounding the Hanford Reach National Monument and the Arid Lands Ecology Reserve near Rattlesnake Ridge. The fire was eventually contained through the use of controlled burns on Rattlesnake Mountain in Benton County due to concerns that the fire was getting too close to the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, which had recently been compared to the Fukushima nuclear disaster by Newsweek magazine earlier in 2016. A lawsuit was filed by ranchers in the area due to loss of property, but was dismissed due to questions of jurisdiction. Even though there were no findings from the Anderson v. United States of America case, the dismissal document from May 21, 2019 does point to a cause for the fire.:
The Army training unit continued to engage in live fire training exercises through the afternoon on July 30, 2016. At approximately 4:40 p.m., one of the Army training unit's soldier's fired a machine gun at a target using tracer rounds. SJF ¶ 74. One of the tracer rounds ricocheted from the target area and landed on some brush, which started a brush fire. Id. The fire spread beyond the YTC and onto Plaintiffs' rangeland properties, causing property damage to Plaintiffs' cattle businesses.
The 2022 Washington wildfire season officially began in March 2022. As of August 4, 2022, there have been 4 large wildfires that have burned 30,800 acres (12,500 ha) across the state of Washington. This season started quieter than normal due to unusually colder weather that kept Eastern and Southeastern Washington burning index's largely below normal into July. As of October 2022, a total of 140,000 acres (57,000 ha) of land in the state was burned – the fewest number of acres burned since 2012.
