The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's Fire and Resource Assessment Program (FRAP) annually maintains and distributes an historical wildland fire perimeter dataset from across public and private lands in California. The GIS data is developed with the cooperation of the United States Forest Service Region 5, the Bureau of Land Management, California State Parks, National Park Service and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and is released in the spring with added data from the previous calendar year. Although the dataset represents the most complete digital record of fire perimeters in California, it is still incomplete, and users should be cautious when drawing conclusions based on the data.

This data should be used carefully for statistical analysis and reporting due to missing perimeters (see Use Limitation in metadata). Some fires are missing because historical records were lost or damaged, were too small for the minimum cutoffs, had inadequate documentation or have not yet been incorporated into the database. Other errors with the fire perimeter database include duplicate fires and over-generalization. Additionally, over-generalization, particularly with large old fires, may show unburned "islands" within the final perimeter as burned. Users of the fire perimeter database must exercise caution in application of the data. Careful use of the fire perimeter database will prevent users from drawing inaccurate or erroneous conclusions from the data. This data is updated annually in the spring with fire perimeters from the previous fire season. This dataset may differ in California compared to that available from the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) due to different requirements between the two datasets. The data covers fires back to 1878. As of May 2025, it represents fire24_1.

Please help improve this dataset by filling out this survey with feedback:

Historic Fire Perimeter Dataset Feedback (arcgis.com)

Current criteria for data collection are as follows:

CAL FIRE (including contract counties) submit perimeters ≥10 acres in timber, ≥50 acres in brush, or ≥300 acres in grass, and/or ≥3 impacted residential or commercial structures, and/or caused ≥1 fatality.

All cooperating agencies submit perimeters ≥10 acres.

Version update:

Firep24_1 was released in April 2025. Five hundred forty-eight fires from the 2024 fire season were added to the database (2 from BIA, 56 from BLM, 197 from CAL FIRE, 193 from Contract Counties, 27 from LRA, 8 from NPS, 55 from USFS and 8 from USFW). Six perimeters were added from the 2025 fire season (as a special case due to an unusual January fire siege). Five duplicate fires were removed, and the 2023 Sage was replaced with a more accurate perimeter. There were 900 perimeters that received updated attribution (705 removed “FIRE” from the end of Fire Name field and 148 replaced Complex IRWIN ID with Complex local incident number for COMPLEX_ID field). The following fires were identified as meeting our collection criteria but are not included in this version and will hopefully be added in a future update: Addie (2024-CACND-002119), Alpaugh (2024-CACND-001715), South (2024-CATIA-001375). One perimeter is missing containment date that will be updated in the next release.

Cross checking CALFIRS reporting for new CAL FIRE submissions to ensure accuracy with cause class was added to the compilation process. The cause class domain description for “Powerline” was updated to “Electrical Power” to be more inclusive of cause reports.

Includes separate layers filtered by criteria as follows:

California Fire Perimeters (All): Unfiltered. The entire collection of wildfire perimeters in the database. It is scale dependent and starts displaying at the country level scale.

Recent Large Fire Perimeters (≥5000 acres): Filtered for wildfires greater or equal to 5,000 acres for the last 5 years of fires (2020-January 2025), symbolized with color by year and is scale dependent and starts displaying at the country level scale. Year-only labels for recent large fires.

California Fire Perimeters (1950+): Filtered for wildfires that started in 1950-January 2025. Symbolized by decade, and display starting at country level scale.

Detailed metadata is included in the following documents:

Wildland Fire Perimeters (Firep24_1) Metadata

For any questions, please contact the data steward:

Kim Wallin, GIS Specialist

CAL FIRE, Fire & Resource Assessment Program (FRAP)

kimberly.wallin@fire.ca.gov

This map feeds into a web app that allows a user to examine the known status of structures damaged by the wildfire. If a structure point does not appear on the map it may still have been impacted by the fire. Specific addresses can be searched for in the search bar. Use the imagery and topographic basemaps and photos to positively identify a structure. Photos may only be available for damaged and destroyed structures.For more information about the wildfire response efforts, visit the CAL FIRE incident page.

This map feeds into a web app that allows a user to examine the known status of structures damaged by the wildfire. If a structure point does not appear on the map it may still have been impacted by the fire. Specific addresses can be searched for in the search bar. Use the imagery and topographic basemaps and photos to positively identify a structure. Photos may only be available for damaged and destroyed structures.

This map feeds into a web app that allows a user to examine the known status of structures damaged by the wildfire. If a structure point does not appear on the map it may still have been impacted by the fire. Specific addresses can be searched for in the search bar. Use the imagery and topographic basemaps and photos to positively identify a structure. Photos may only be available for damaged and destroyed structures

For more information about the wildfire response efforts, visit the CAL FIRE incident page.

This map feeds into a web app that allows a user to examine the known status of structures damaged by the wildfire. If a structure point does not appear on the map it may still have been impacted by the fire. Specific addresses can be searched for in the search bar. Use the imagery and topographic basemaps and photos to positively identify a structure. Photos may only be available for damaged and destroyed structures.For more information about the wildfire response efforts, visit the CAL FIRE incident page.

This map feeds into a web app that allows a user to examine the known status of structures damaged by the wildfire. If a structure point does not appear on the map it may still have been impacted by the fire. Specific addresses can be searched for in the search bar. Use the imagery and topographic basemaps and photos to positively identify a structure. Photos may only be available for damaged and destroyed structuresFor more information about the wildfire response efforts, visit the CAL FIRE incident page.

This map feeds into a web app that allows a user to examine the known status of structures damaged by the wildfire. If a structure point does not appear on the map it may still have been impacted by the fire. Specific addresses can be searched for in the search bar. Use the imagery and topographic basemaps and photos to positively identify a structure. Photos may only be available for damaged and destroyed structures.For more information about the wildfire response efforts, visit the CAL FIRE incident page.

This map feeds into a web app that allows a user to examine the known status of structures damaged by the wildfire. If a structure point does not appear on the map it may still have been impacted by the fire. Specific addresses can be searched for in the search bar. Use the imagery and topographic basemaps and photos to positively identify a structure. Photos may only be available for damaged and destroyed structures.For more information about the wildfire response efforts, visit the CAL FIRE incident page.

This map feeds into a web app that allows a user to examine the known status of structures damaged by the wildfire. If a structure point does not appear on the map it may still have been impacted by the fire. Specific addresses can be searched for in the search bar. Use the imagery and topographic basemaps and photos to positively identify a structure. Photos may only be available for damaged and destroyed structures

For more information about the wildfire response efforts, visit the CAL FIRE incident page.

Timber Harvesting Plans (THPs) approved by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, permitting timber harvest for commercial purposes on non-federal lands. Data and feature representations contribute to assessment of cumulative effects from timber harvesting in planning watersheds and support the planning, regulation, enforcement, and oversight of commercial timber harvesting on non-federal lands in California. For more information, see Subchapter 7, Article 2, Timber Harvesting Plan, of the California Forest Practice Rules. Data from 1997 to present.This data set is in the California Teale Albers NAD83 meters projection (TA83).Link to the California Forest Practice Rules:https://bof.fire.ca.gov/regulations/bills-statutes-rules-and-annual-california-forest-practice-rules/For additional information on specific plans see the California Timber Regulation and Environmental Evaluation System (CalTREES): https://caltreesplans.resources.ca.gov/caltrees/Default.aspx

This map feeds into a web app that allows a user to examine the known status of structures damaged by the wildfire. If a structure point does not appear on the map it may still have been impacted by the fire. Specific addresses can be searched for in the search bar. Use the imagery and topographic basemaps and photos to positively identify a structure. Photos may only be available for damaged and destroyed structures.For more information about the wildfire response efforts, visit the CAL FIRE incident page.

This map feeds into a web app that allows a user to examine the known status of structures damaged by the wildfire. If a structure point does not appear on the map it may still have been impacted by the fire. Specific addresses can be searched for in the search bar. Use the imagery and topographic basemaps and photos to positively identify a structure. Photos may only be available for damaged and destroyed structures.For more information about the wildfire response efforts, visit the CAL FIRE incident page.

All Exemption Notices (EXs) of Timber Operations accepted by the California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection. Operations are exempt from the plan preparation and submission requirements of PRC § 4581, and may be exempt from the completion report and stocking report requirements (PRC §§ 4585 and 4587) of the Forest Practice Act. Public Utility and other Right-of-Way Exemptions are not included. See CAL FIRE Exemption Notices Right-of-Way for this data. Data set includes current year plus two preceding years. For previous years see data set CAL FIRE Exemption Notices Historical. To learn more about Exemptions, refer to 14 CCR §§ 1038 and 1104.1(a) in the California Forest Practice Rules. Exemption Notices are subject to the rules of the year in which they were submitted. Examples of exemptions that are collected include: Christmas Tree, Dead, Dying, and Diseased, Drought Mortality, 150ft or 300ft Fire Hazard Trees removal, Forest Fire Prevention, Fuelwood split product, Less than three acre conversions, and Substantially Damaged Timberland, Post Fire Recovery. This data set is in the California Teale Albers NAD83 meters projection (TA83).Link to the California Forest Practice Rules:https://bof.fire.ca.gov/regulations/bills-statutes-rules-and-annual-california-forest-practice-rulesFor additional information on specific plans see the California Timber Regulation and Environmental Evaluation System (CalTREES): https://caltreesplans.resources.ca.gov/caltrees/Default.aspx

This map feeds into a web app that allows a user to examine the known status of structures damaged by the wildfire. If a structure point does not appear on the map it may still have been impacted by the fire. Specific addresses can be searched for in the search bar. Use the imagery and topographic basemaps and photos to positively identify a structure. Photos may only be available for damaged and destroyed structures.For more information about the wildfire response efforts, visit the CAL FIRE incident page.

This map feeds into a web app that allows a user to examine the known status of structures damaged by the wildfire. If a structure point does not appear on the map it may still have been impacted by the fire. Specific addresses can be searched for in the search bar. Use the imagery and topographic basemaps and photos to positively identify a structure. Photos may only be available for damaged and destroyed structures.For more information about the wildfire response efforts, visit the CAL FIRE incident page.

This map feeds into a web app that allows a user to examine the known status of structures damaged by the wildfire. If a structure point does not appear on the map it may still have been impacted by the fire. Specific addresses can be searched for in the search bar. Use the imagery and topographic basemaps and photos to positively identify a structure. Photos may only be available for damaged and destroyed structures.For more information about the wildfire response efforts, visit the CAL FIRE incident page.