Yes, parts of California are burning again — and the map makers are at work. Fires are often breaking out, so at the top of the story, maps to places currently in the news. Below that, general resources to check since this page was last updated.

Update: September 1

• Los Angeles area fires: Mount Wilson, La Canada Flintridge, Altadena, La Crescenta, Glendale, Pasadena, Acton, Agua Dulce from the Los Angeles Times covers the fire area in the Angeles National Forest, actions to protect the Mt. Wilson Observatory, evacuation areas and much more. Zoom out to also see where the Pendleton Fire near Yucaipa and the Oak Glen fires are. This is the best, most detailed map I’ve currently seen out there.
• SoCal Fires from KCBS pinpoints fires in Southern California, including the Morris Fire in Azusa, the Rancho Palos Verdes Fire, the Station Fire in the Angeles National Forest,  the Hemet / Idyllwild Fire and the one near Yucaipa.
• Station Fire from the LA County Fire Department has information about the Station Fire.
• Official (but non-mapped) info from La Canada Flintridge covers evacuation areas and more in text format.
• Inland Wildfires Map from the Riverside Press Enterprise focuses more closely on the fires in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
• Riverside County Fire Department Incidents page lacks maps but has textual info about fires in the area.
• California Statewide Fire Map (PDF format) from the California Department Of Forestry & Fire Protection spots blazes across the state. You can also drill-down into the Incidents page to locate a specific fire. Select one of those, such as the Pendleton Fire. Then on the right-hand side of the page, in the “More Information” box, click maps. Now you can get a close-up map of the particular area in PDF format.
• InciWeb lets you select a fire by name, then get a map and more information. If one isn’t shown, look for the “Maps” link at the top of the page.

General Resources

• Los Angeles Times maps: Watch the LA Times Google Maps account where fire maps are often posted for Southern California.
• CBS 2 maps: Watch their Google Maps account where wildfire maps are often posted.
• Los Angeles CITY Fire Department maps: The city of Los Angeles Fire Department posts maps to its Google account here for some fires and evacuation areas. Note that general area also known as Los Angeles is far broader than the actual city, which is why the department might not have fire info for all of Southern California (for those who get understandably frustrated over this).
• Los Angeles COUNTY Fire Department maps: The county of Los Angeles covers much of Southern California (Orange, Ventura, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego counties are also part of the greater Los Angeles area). The LA County Fire Department serves unincorporated areas and cities without their own fire departments in LA County. So, a broader area is covered than the city of Los Angeles, but still not all fires will be listed, if they’re outside the county’s service area.
• Wildfire Today: Regularly posts maps of fires.
• Firefighter Blog: Regularly has maps of fires.
• Enplan Wildfire Viewer: An excellent resource that lets you see across California where major fires have been spotted by satellite. For more about the viewer, see this article about it from the Orange County Register.
• MODIS: Shows large fires across the US.
• California Department Of Forestry & Fire Protection map: Maintains a Google Maps account that often pinpoints some fires.
• GeoMAC Wildfire Information: Lets you see current fires and perimeters across the US, plus see historic information.
• Wildfire From Fetch: Pinpoints fires, and if you click on an incident, you get an update on percentage contained and other information.
• The California Fire Alliance maps: Has maps of fires across California and the Western United States.
• The Orange County Register: Watch the newspaper’s Google Maps account here for possible maps of future fires.

Update: August 30

• Yosemite’s Big Meadow fire still spreading to the north from Wildfire Today covers the blaze near Yosemite.
• NOTE: Other map sources listed on this day are still fresh and have been moved to the Sept. 1 area.

August 18 Fires

• Lockheed Fire Map from the Santa Cruz Sentinel has boundaries of the fire, the evacuation center location and photo slideshows from various areas.
• The Los Angeles Times has a basic map pinpointing the Lockheed Fire as well as the recent La Brea Fire.
• Wildfire Today has a nice map of the La Brea fire via the GeoMac service listed further above.
• The Orange County Register has a map of the Ortega Fire earlier this month.

Fires are burning in Southern California once again. Here’s an update on how to find maps of where the blazes are:

NOTE: For the latest fires, see this fire maps section of Search Engine Land, where any updates are listed.

• Los Angeles Times: Watch the newspaper’s Google Maps account here for the latest maps. Most recent ones are Brea fire, Sylmar / Sayre fire map and Map of the fires in Santa Barbara County. See also this road closures list.
• Orange County Register: Watch this newspaper’s Google Maps account here. This map covers the Green River / Yorba Linda / Corona fire.
• Los Angeles Fire Department: From its Google Maps account here, see the SAYRE FIRE EVAC ZONE map.
• Santa Barbara / Montecito “Tea Fire” is a nice collaborative effort covering the fire in that area. Sylmar Fire is from a local resident.
• CBS 2: See their collection here, watch their Google Maps account here for more. Also see these nice individual maps: Los Angeles Area Fire Information From KCBS2/KCAL9 News, Corona, Yorba Linda Brush Fires and Montecito Fire.
• Enplan Wildfire Viewer: Lets you see across California where major fires have been spotted by satellite. For more about the viewer, see O.C. wildfires now easy to track online from the Orange County Register.
• California Active Fire Mapper: From UC Berkeley, this pinpoints fires over the past week across the state.
• MODIS: Map has large fires across the US shown.
• California Department Of Forestry & Fire Protection: Maintains a Google Maps account here that pinpoints some blazes.
• GeoMAC Wildfire Information: View current fires and perimeters across the US, plus see historic information.
• Wildfire From Fetch: Pinpoints fires, and if you click on an incident, you get an update on percentage contained and other information.

Somewhat related, posts on Twitter for Yorba Linda and Sylmar are currently popular, reflecting a lot of eyewitness reports and people in the general areas commenting about the fires.

Sayre / Sylmar Fire LA Times (View Larger Map) Orange County Register (View Larger Map) CBS (View Larger Map) LA Fire Department(View Larger Map)

Triangle Complex Fire (Brea / Yorba Linda / Carbon Canyon / Anaheim Hills / Diamond Bar) LA Times (View Larger Map) Orange County Register(View Larger Map) CBS (View Larger Map)

Santa Barbara / Montecito / Tea Fire Google Maps Member Grizzlehizzle (View Larger Map) LA Times (View Larger Map) Orange County Register (View Larger Map) CBS (View Larger Map)

Southern California is ablaze with wildfires once again, including one I can see out my window in the Newport Beach foothills. Trying to keep track of where they are. Here’s a guide to maps of current fires and place you can expect future ones to be posted.

NOTE: For the latest fires, see this fire maps section of Search Engine Land, where any updates are listed.

• Los Angeles Times: Watch the newspaper’s Google Maps account here for the latest maps. At the moment, Wildfire closes the 210 and 118 freeways, 8 schools is the most recent one, showing the “Marek Fire” burn area and evacuation centers.
• Orange County Register: Again, watch this newspaper’s Google Maps account here, with Small brush fire and Angeles fire providing an overview of current fires in Southern California and Angeles National Fire zooming in on the area near the 210 Freeway.
• Los Angeles Fire Department: From its Google Maps account here, links to information about the Sesnon Fire and a Marek Fire Evacuation Map.
• California Active Fire Mapper: From UC Berkeley, this pinpoints fires over the past week across the state.
• MODIS: Map has large fires across the US shown.

Wildfires, again, in my home state of California. People are looking for maps of where they are at, so here are some resources:

NOTE: For the latest fires, see this fire maps section of Search Engine Land, where any updates are listed.

• California Fires 2008 is an excellent map pinpointing fires across the state. Just excellent work. It’s embedded over at KSBW so that you get a key for the color of each “thumbtack” marking a fire (blue is smaller; red is largest). See also the wildfires section that has a list of more detailed maps for particular fires.
• Significant California Fires – June 2008 is maintained by California’s Office Of Emergency Services, which also has it embedded with perspective here.
• GeoMAC has a variety of maps you can view in Google Earth.
• The Ukiah Daily Journal has a special map for the Mendocino area.
• California Active Fire Mapper pinpoints blazes across the Western US, and you can zoom to particular cities.
• Modus has large fires across the US pinpointed — you can really see the cluster in Northern California here.

Postscript: See Los Angeles & Southern California Fire Maps: October 2008 Edition for fires in Southern California during mid-October 2008.

Fires are burning again in Southern California, and the map makers are hard at work helping people know what’s happening where. Below, maps relating to the Corral Fire in Malibu:

NOTE: For the latest fires, see this fire maps section of Search Engine Land, where any updates are listed.

• Los Angeles Times: Shows evacuation zones, fire location, and more.
• Los Angeles Daily News: Highlights the entire evacuation area, locates fire, pinpoints destroyed homes, and more.
• Fox News: Road closures, reports of homes burned.
• ABC News: Evacuation areas.
• Blog.sudosu.net: Road closures as gathered from media and other reports.

For maps of the fires across the region that hit in October, see our Mapping The Southern California Fires post.

Postscript: See June 2008 California Fire Maps for wildfires in Northern California that month; Los Angeles & Southern California Fire Maps: October 2008 Edition for fires in Southern California during mid-October 2008; Maps Of Fires In Southern California: November 2008 Edition for fires during that period.

Looking for information about wildfires in Southern California and across the California in general? This page will guide you to what you’re looking for.

NOTE: Since this article was originally written, there have been many other fires on a seasonal basis. The original story is below. For the latest fires that may have brought you to this page, see this fire maps section of Search Engine Land, where any updates are listed.

I’m back home (my original home) in Southern California for vacation, and to welcome me back, the Southland is on fire. Ah, just like old times. As I was keeping up with the news, I came across some maps online from Google Earth, Google Maps, Virtual Earth, and elsewhere that I thought I’d share with others. 

• LA Times Interactive Fire Map: Built on Google Maps and from the Los Angeles Times, fire icons show each major fire, and you can click on the flames for more information about the incident. This is probably the best and most widely referenced resource that I’ve seen.
• San Diego County Fires Map: From public radio station KPBS, covers incidents in the area, including evacuation centers.
• California Active Fire Mapper: From UC Berkeley, pinpoints fires over the past week across the state.
• Google Earth Blog List: Links to a range of maps, including a special layer covering the fires in San Diego and animations of how smoke is spreading (and here’s how some of that was done). Here’s my personal view of smoke moving over Newport Beach.
• NASA MODIS: Shows the smoke plume as today’s image of the day.
• San Diego Fire Resources: Links to a variety of maps for the San Diego area.
• Malibu Fire in Birds Eye: From Microsoft’s Virtual Earth / Windows Live Local blog, covers a special look at the Malibu area fires.
• Wildfire Resources: From Gary Price’s ResourceShelf, more links to fire information.
• Google Lat Long Blog: Both the first maps on the list are mentioned in this post, and it’s a good place to watch in case future posts provide an update.

My, how things have changed. I was a graphics reporter in the area during the big Laguna Beach fire of 1994, with my job specifically to map the spread of that fire. I had to do it the old fashioned way — talk to the firefighters and later actually drive through the area neighborhood-by-neighborhood. Today, interactive maps are easily at hand through the resources of the web. Postscript: A few more resources since the above was compiled:

• San Diego Fire Maps & Info: A nice list from local news search engine Topix.
• Web 2.0 & The California Fire Crisis: From GigaOM, not about maps but instead interesting in noting that the LA Fire Department is twittering fire information. FYI, the LA Times is doing the same here.
• Southern California fire maps: From the Official Google Blog, a freshly updated list of fire maps and information.
• Orange County Register Fire Map: Covers all of Southern California, not just Orange County — but you can expect that OC information will be more closely watched and updated.
• LA Times Fire Perimeters: See how fires have spread and zoom in on key locations.

Postscript 2: Podcast: California Fire Maps – How Can We Do Better? from Directions Magazine looks to be a nice after-the-fact analysis of how maps were created and used.

Postscript 3: See also our Malibu Corral Fire Maps: Burn Area, Evacuation Centers & More post for maps of the fires that hit in late November 2007.

Postscript 4: See June 2008 California Fire Maps for wildfires in Northern California.

Postscript 5: See Los Angeles & Southern California Fire Maps: October 2008 Edition for fires in Southern California during mid-October 2008.

Postscript 6: See Maps Of Fires In Southern California: November 2008 Edition for fires during that month.