Search by Primary Source

Primary Sources

The resources on this page include primary sources relevant to the study of wildfire in California. Some of these resources have been digitized and are accessible through the links provided, while others are analog materials described in finding aids and must be viewed in person at the noted museum, library, or other repository.  The primary sources listed here include archival collections, oral histories, and photographic collections, many of which are accessible through the Online Archive of California and Calisphere. 

Cal Fire Museum

The CalFire Museum is located at 3875 Genevieve Street in San Bernardino, CA. Founded and run by retired firefighters, the CalFire museum is home to an extensive collection of photographs, reference textbooks, forestry papers, annual reports, and many other primary sources all related to California fire history.  

Please note that the CalFire Museum is not open to the general public. If you are interested in accessing their archives, please email admin@calfirehistory.com to make an appointment. 

California Revealed Cal Fire Museum Digital Collections

California Revealed, a state library that helps public libraries, museums, and community archives digitize their materials, digitized nearly 1,000 moving images, photos and documents from CalFire's collections. These documents can be accessed via Calisphere or the California Revealed Website. 

Los Angeles Fire Museum

The LA Fire Museum is located at 16400 Bellflower Boulevard in Bellflower, CA. It is open Wednesday through Saturday from 9am to 2pm. Their collections include fire-related apparatuses, artifacts, and photographs. 

UC Berkeley

The Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley houses a range of primary source collections that span many disciplines and cover topics such as fire history, fire policy, fire response, and more. Finding aids can be accessed through the Online Archive of California. Using key terms while searching the repository can be incredibly helpful. 

Forest History Society

The Forest History Society is located at 2925 Academy Road Durham, NC. The hyperlink will take you to a webpage titled "Library and Archives." Under the "Research and Explore" tab, you can browse their digitized collections. 

There are two institutions outside of California that may have useful information regarding California wildfires. The University of Oregon and the University of Montana are known to have information about California and the state's history with wildfire. 

Oral Histories 

African Americans Affected by the East Bay Hills Fire Oral History Collection

A collection housed at the African American Museum and Library at Oakland.

CSU Chico Camp Fire Oral History Collection

This collection is accessed via the CSU Chico Digital Collections Webpage. 

California Listens Sonoma Wildfire Stories

These interviews from the Sonoma County Library are accessed via Calisphere. 

California Society of American Foresters Oral History Project

This collection on the California Society of American Foresters website includes videos from California fire chiefs and individuals closely related to the field. 

Photographic Collections

Forest History Society Photographic Collections 

This link will take you to the Forest History Society's catalog of digitized photographs from their collections. 

Los Angeles Examiner Collection at University of Southern California Libraries

This link will take you to the collection via the USC Digital Library.  The collection includes many digitized photographs of fires in Southern California, principally from the 1930s-1950s.  

L.A. County Fire Museum Online Photographic Collections

This link will take you to the webpage for LAFM's digitized photograph collections. 

Bureau of Indian Affairs Historic Wildland Fire Photos

Photographs of Native Americans and the practice of using fire for managing vegetation and wildlife. 

Other Primary Sources

Fire Management Records

This collection housed at the Yosemite National Park Archives includes fire incident reports, seasonal fire reports, search and rescue reports, fire plans, fire research, administrative files, planning documents, weather data, correspondence, newspaper articles, maps, charts, photographs, and press releases from Yosemite National Park. 

Woolsey Fire Memory Project 

This collection housed at Pepperdine University's Special Collections and University Archives includes physical and digital materials. 

Firefighting Reference Collection at the Museum of Ventura County

Items in this collection include reports, plans, and other publications produced by the Ventura County Fire Department following the 2017 Thomas Fire. No articles in this collection are available online. To access, you must contact the Museum of Ventura County.