The 10 deadliest wildfires in US history

• Throughout US history, wildfires have burned through populated areas, leaving destruction, homelessness, and casualties in their wake. 
• Death tolls from wildfires have been documented as far back as 1871.
• California's Camp Fire was the latest deadly travesty, as wildfires in the state become more frequent and pervasive. 

In November 2018, the Camp Fire tore through Northern California, destroying the entire town of Paradise in less than a day. The blaze killed 85 people and scorched 153,336 acres — an area larger than the city of Chicago.

The fire was the deadliest in California history, but not the deadliest in the US overall. A series of five catastrophic fires between 1871 and 1918 have gone down in history as the country's worst.

Here are the 10 deadliest wildfires in US history.   

The 2013 Yarnell Hill Fire in Arizona killed 19 firefighters.

The Yarnell Hill Fire started on June 28, 2013 in Yarnell, Arizona. The blaze is believed to have been ignited by a lightning strike. It burned more than 8,000 acres of land.

The blaze killed 19 firefighters who were unable to outpace the flames, making it the deadliest in Arizona history. It was the most fatal firefighter tragedy since the September 11 attack in 2001.

The Tubbs Fire in 2017 killed 22 people in Northern California.

The Tubbs Fire, which broke out in Northern California in October 2017, burned more than 36,800 acres across Sonoma and Napa counties. It killed 22 people and leveled thousands of homes. The blaze hit the city of Santa Rosa particularly hard, destroying 5% of the city’s housing stock.

The Tubbs Fire was one of more than 200 fires that hit the state of California in 2017.

The Oakland Hills Fire of 1991 claimed the lives of 25 people.

On October 19, 1991, a fire broke out in the hills of Oakland, California. The Oakland Hills Fire, as it came to be known, started as a wind-driven brush fire, but exploded into a firestorm that roared through upscale residential neighborhoods, engulfing thousands of homes.

Over the course of two days, the blaze spread across 1,520 acres and destroyed more than 3,000 homes and apartment buildings. The fire killed 25 people and injured at least 150 others, causing $1.5 billion in damages.

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