Firefighters hose down the roof of a partially burned home during the Skirball Fire in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Dec. 6, 2017. Fast-moving fires fanned by high winds in Southern California charred 50,000 acres of land and prompted a shut down of the Interstate 405 highway as they moved closer to Los Angeles. (Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg)

2017 was a year of massive wildfire losses in California. The state experienced five of the 20 most destructive wildfires in state history (#1 Tubbs, #6 Nuns, #7 Thomas, #11 Atlas and #17 Redwood Valley Complex). Nearly 10,000 structures were destroyed, more than in the previous nine years combined and, at 43, the death toll from wildfires in 2017 was higher than the previous 10 years combined.

Last October ushered in what the LA Times dubbed the "Northern California Firestorm." During this time, there were as many as 250 wildfires across northern California within just a few weeks. More than a score of these became major wildfires and consumed more than 245,000 acres across Napa, Lake, Solano, Sonoma, Mendocino, and Butte counties. When all was said and done, AccuWeather estimated that the total cost of the wildfires would exceed $180 billion and took the lives of 41 civilians and two firefighters while injuring more than 200 people.

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