At a Glance

The 2,800 square miles burned in California last year is the "highest in recorded history." More than 100 people died in the state's 8,000 wildfires.More than 39,000 square miles of wildlands remain under very high or extreme fire threat, Cal Fire said.

California's wildfires burned more than 2,849 square miles and destroyed more than 17,000 homes in 2018, a new national report details, marking the worst wildfire season in the state's history.

“That’s the ,” Scott McLean, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, told the Los Angeles Times.

“It’s what we’ve been living through,” he said.

Of 25,790 structures destroyed by wildfires last year, 23,647 were in California. Of those, 17,133 were residences. Overall, the state saw more than 8,000 wildfires that killed over 100 people.

The National Interagency Coordination Center’s annual report says , down from 71,499 in 2017. However, more acreage than normal was burned: Nearly 14,000 square miles, or 8,767,492 acres, were consumed. That's an area larger than the state of Maryland.

(MORE: 18 Million Trees Died in California in 2018, Forest Service Study Finds)

Nevada had the second largest area burned by wildfires, 1,566 square miles.

California saw its most destructive and deadliest fire in 2018. In November, the destroyed the town of Paradise in Northern California, killing 85 people and destroying more than 18,000 structures.

(MORE: PG&E Says Its Equipment Was Probable ‘Ignition Point’ of Camp Fire in Northern California)

That same month, the killed three people as it burned more than 150 square miles in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

In July, the became the state's largest wildfire after burning more than 700 square miles in Mendocino and Lake counties. One firefighter was killed in that blaze. That same month, the in Shasta and Trinity counties killed eight people and burned almost 400 square miles.

In to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Cal Fire wrote, "Climate change, an epidemic of dead and dying trees, and the proliferation of new homes in the wildland urban interface (WUI) magnify the threat and place substantially more people and property at risk than in preceding decades. More than 25 million acres (39,000 square miles) of California wildlands are classified as under very high or extreme fire threat, extending that risk over half the state."

The report estimated as many as 15 million acres of California forests need some form of restoration and management. Last month, the U.S. Forest Service said .