What if the Thomas Fire burned the Bay Area?

ByBrandon Behle KGO logo
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
What if the Thomas Fire burned the Bay Area?
The Thomas Fire is close to becoming the largest wildfire in California history. So far it's burned more than 271,750 acres which is the equivalent of more than 420 square miles.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The Thomas Fire is close to becoming the largest wildfire in California history. So far it's burned more than 271,750 acres which is the equivalent of more than 420 square miles.

But just how big is that?

ABC7 News took the current fire perimeter and laid it on a map of the Bay Area and the results were staggering.

If the Thomas Fire was burning in the East Bay it would have burned from Richmond all the way down through Oakland and Hayward to Fremont, then east to Dublin and Walnut Creek.

This is a graphic showing how much of the East Bay the Thomas fire would cover if it burned there.
KGO-TV

ABC7 News also laid out what 420 square miles would look like not within the current fire perimeter:

This is a map of what the Thomas fire in Southern California would look like if it weren't within the current fire perimeter.
KGO-TV
  • The area burned would include the entire city of San Francisco, everything east of I-280 on the Peninsula, and basically the entire city of San Jose.
  • If the fire was burning in San Diego, the entire city would be wiped out from Del Mar down to the Mexican border

At last check the Thomas Fire is still only 50 percent contained. It's destroyed more than 1,000 structures and is responsible for the death of one firefighter.

Click here to see a list of California's Largest Wildfires