COMPLEX FIRE
In 2020 a massive wildfire, known as the CZU Lightening Complex Fire, broke out in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Initially, several small fires were sparked by lightening. Those fires eventually grew and coalesced into one much larger conflagration. Part of that fire surrounded and consumed the ancient old-growth forests of Big Basin Redwoods State Park, along California’s central coast, just south of San Francisco and north of Monterey Bay. Though ignited by an unusual lightning storm, a warming climate and a century of fire suppression were rightfully blamed for the fire’s unprecedented ferocity. The fire was the hottest, most destructive fire to have ever been recorded in the area and came to be labelled a "mega-fire." Of the more than 3,000 acres of old-growth in the park, fewer than 100 acres escaped the flames. With that, 85 miles of trails, all of the park facilities, historic buildings, 20 staff homes, and their brand new museum (with decade in funding and development and set to open the following year) were all lost.
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