More wildfires erupted in Alameda County in 2018 than in any other Bay Area region, although the greatest number of acres burned in Solano County.

According to Cal Fire, 540 wildfires burned in Alameda County last year, charing 1,882 acres, compared with 187 fires and 9,806 acres that were scorched in Solano County.

Here’s how the counties rank by number of wildfires.1. Alameda – 5402. Contra Costa – 4703. Santa Clara – 3534. Sonoma – 2625. Solano – 1876. San Francisco – 1847. Napa – 1188. San Mateo – 1069. Marin – 61Between 2009 and 2018, the number of acres burned and the number of wildfires has been trending up, according to data provided by Cal Fire.

Scott McLean, a spokesman for Cal Fire, attributed the trend to at least three factors — drought conditions, weather and an increase in population.

“It’s just an accumulation of a whole bunch of pieces and parts,” he said.



Source: Cal Fire

Keith Burbank is currently a fulltime reporter covering Alameda County and Oakland news for Bay City News. He has also worked on the Data Points project for Local News Matters, finding trends and stories about the region through data. In 2019, he was a California Fellow at the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism, producing a series about homeless deaths in Santa Clara County. He worked as a swing shift editor for the newswire for several years as well. Outside of journalism, Keith enjoys computer programming, math, economics and music.