We keep hearing about the “Camp” fire in California. How did it get that name, and how are other fires named? There doesn’t seem to be a predetermined name list like they have for hurricanes.
Usually from where they started, or a particular feature of the area near the fire’s origin.
I was going to ask the same thing due to the same fire. You’d think that even though it apparently was named after a Camp road, that someone would have had the sense to not call it something easily confused with “Campfire”.
They usually try to find some local feature that’s not the name of the nearest town. The reason is that if they name it after a town, people will get the idea that the town itself burned down, which it probably didn’t.
From Wikipedia, “Named after Camp Creek Road, its place of origin, the fire started on November 8, 2018, in Butte County, in Northern California.”
There’s lots of fires each year, most of which don’t make the nightly news. I don’t think they spend much time worrying about the names.
The NSW Rural Fire Service says this:
Incident Name
Each incident is given a name to assist with managing multiple incidents. The name of an incident does not necessarily reflect the exact location of that incident.
Naming can be important in indicating risk. If I’m north of Bob’s River I might not give as much attention as I should to a Bobs River South fire.
The incidents can also include bushfires, grass fires, hazard reduction burns, chemical spills, flood and storm rescues and a host of other things that keep them busy, as Telemark said.
I think it was about 2012 when a bunch of smaller fires in Idaho ran together and TPTB more than once had to decide which name would take precedence for the combined fire.
Not from Chicago, are you? 
I find it funny that the media are always calling it “the so-called Camp Fire”. Its not the “so-called Wolsey Fire”, is it?
They’re saying that to avoid confusion the audience with “campfire”.
Why not the Camp Creek Fire?
Probably because some smart asses will insist a body of water can’t catch on fire.
Carr Fire was a confusing name too (“car fire”??).
Because fires are typically giving single name designations.
“Typically”, sure, but there’ve been some “X River” fires over the years, along with other compound names.
The Butte Fire might be almost as bad, especially if you mispronounce Butte.
Also because there was “Creek Fire.”
Memorialized in Randy Newman’s Burn On.
*Cleveland, city of light, city of magic
Cleveland, city of light, you’re calling me
Cleveland, even now I can remember
'Cause the Cuyahoga River goes smoking through my dreams
Burn on, big river, burn on
Burn on, big river, burn on
Now the Lord can make you tumble
The Lord can make you turn
The Lord can make you overflow
But the Lord can’t make you burn*
Yes, but it’s not common. It appears that the naming rules are fairly relaxed and whatever name is given initially is the one they use. There was no need to use anything but “Camp” for this fire.