Jasper is a specialized municipality and townsite in western Alberta within the Canadian Rockies. The townsite is in the Athabasca River valley and is the commercial centre of Jasper National Park.
The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo is a specialized municipality in northeast Alberta, Canada. It is the largest regional municipality in Canada by area and is home to oil sand deposits known as the Athabasca oil sands.
A large wildfire burned through Slave Lake, Alberta, Canada and its surrounding area from May 14 to 16, 2011. The conflagration, which originated 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) outside of town as a forest fire, was quickly pushed past fire barriers designed to protect the town by 100-kilometre-per-hour (60 mph) winds. The fire forced the complete evacuation of Slave Lake's 7,000 residents—considered the largest such displacement in the province's history at the time—to the nearby towns of Athabasca and Westlock, as well as the provincial capital of Edmonton. No casualties were reported amongst the town's population, but a pilot was killed when his helicopter crashed while he was battling the fires around the community.
The Richardson Fire was a 2011 forest fire in the Canadian province of Alberta. It was located north of the city of Fort McMurray in an area known as the Richardson Backcountry. The fire started in mid-May 2011, and burned over 700,000 hectares of boreal forest. It threatened facilities in the Athabasca oil sands, and resulted in several evacuations and shutdowns. Firefighting efforts included agencies from several Canadian provinces as well as international crews. The Richardson fire was the largest fire in Alberta since the 1950 Chinchaga Fire, and the second largest recorded fire in the province's history.
The Yarnell Hill Fire was a wildfire near Yarnell, Arizona, ignited by dry lightning on June 28, 2013. On June 30, it overran and killed 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, a group of firefighters within the Prescott Fire Department. Just one of the hotshots on the crew survived —he was posted as a lookout on the fire and was not with the others when the fire overtook them. The Yarnell Hill Fire was one of the deadliest U.S. wildfires since the 1991 Oakland Hills fire, which killed 25 people, and the deadliest wildland fire for U.S. firefighters since the 1933 Griffith Park fire, which killed 29 "impromptu" civilian firefighters drafted on short notice to help battle the Los Angeles area fire.
The 2015 wildfire season was the largest in Washington state history, with more than one million acres burning across the state from June to September. As many as 3,000 firefighters including 800 Washington National Guard members were deployed to fight the fires. The 17th Field Artillery Brigade of the United States Army also deployed 200 soldiers from Joint Base Lewis–McChord to help fight the fires.
2015 Canadian wildfires were a series of wildfires across Canada and Alaska in July 2015 which spread smoke across most of North America. Over two hundred fires were ablaze across British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.
The Wragg Fire was a wildland fire that started just off California State Route 128 near Lake Berryessa in Napa County, California in the United States. The fire started on July 22, 2015. The cause was an idling vehicle's car exhaust. The vehicle came into contact with dry grass and sparked the fire. Mandatory evacuations for 136 homes and 200 residents took place. Six roads were closed temporarily as a result.
The October 2007 California wildfires, also known as the Fall 2007 California firestorm, were a series of about thirty wildfires that began igniting across Southern California on October 20. At least 1,500 homes were destroyed and approximately 972,147 acres of land was burned from Santa Barbara County to the U.S.–Mexico border, surpassing the October 2003 California wildfires in scope, which were estimated to have burned 800,000 acres (3,200 km2). The wildfires killed a total of 14 people, with nine of them dying directly from the fires; 160 others were injured, including at least 124 firefighters. At their height, the raging fires were visible from space. These fires included the vast majority of the largest and deadliest wildfires of the 2007 California wildfire season. The only wildfire in 2007 that surpassed any of the individual October 2007 fires in size was the Zaca Fire.
The Valley Fire was a wildfire during the 2015 California wildfire season that started on September 12 in Lake County, California. It began shortly after 1:00 pm near Cobb with multiple reports of a small brush fire near the intersection of High Valley and Bottlerock Roads. It quickly spread and by 6:30 PM PDT, it had burned more than 10,000 acres (40 km2). By Sunday, the thirteenth of September, the fire had reached 50,000 acres (202 km2) and had destroyed much of Cobb, Middletown, Whispering Pines, and parts in the south end of Hidden Valley Lake. The fire ultimately spread to 76,067 acres (308 km2), killed four people and destroyed nearly 2,000 buildings, before it was fully contained on October 15, 2015, causing at least $921 million in insured property damage. At the time, the fire was the third-most destructive fire in California history, based on the total structures burned, but the Camp Fire (2018) and the North Complex fire in 2020, exceeded that total.
On May 1, 2016, a wildfire began southwest of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. On May 3, it swept through the community, forcing the largest wildfire evacuation in Alberta's history, with upwards of 88,000 people forced from their homes. Firefighters were assisted by personnel from both the Canadian Armed Forces and Royal Canadian Mounted Police, as well as other Canadian provincial agencies, to fight the wildfire. Aid for evacuees was provided by various governments and via donations through the Canadian Red Cross and other local and national charitable organizations.
On July 6, 2017, a two-hectare wildfire began west of 100 Mile House, British Columbia, Canada marking the beginning of the record-breaking 2017 wildfire season in British Columbia. On July 7, 56 new fires started throughout British Columbia (BC) leading to several evacuation alerts, orders and the declaration of a provincial state of emergency by the Government of British Columbia. By September 12, 158 fires were burning throughout the province. A total of 12,161 square kilometres had burned by the end of the 2017 fire season, the largest total area burned in a fire season in recorded history. This record was broken the following year, with five of BC's worst 10 fire seasons occurring since 2010. However, the 2017 fire season was also notable for the largest number of total evacuees in a fire season, as well as for the largest single fire ever in British Columbia. Research indicates that human-caused climate change played a significant role in the fires.
The 2019 Alberta wildfires have been described by NASA as part of an extreme fire season in the province. In 2019 there were a total of 803,393.32 hectares, which is over 3.5 times more land area burned than in the five-year average burned. The five year average is 747 fires destroying 146,360.08 hectares. There were 644 wildfires recorded in Alberta. By May 31, 10,000 people had been evacuated, 16 homes, and the Steen River CN railway bridge, had been destroyed.
In June through August 2022, parts of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa were affected by wildfires. The bulk of the fires affected Mediterranean Countries, with the main areas affected being Algeria, France, Greece, Portugal and Spain.
The Oak Fire was a destructive wildfire that burned north of the community of Bootjack in Mariposa County, California and in the Sierra National Forest, during the 2022 California wildfire season. The fire was reported on July 22, 2022, and burned 19,244 acres (7,788 ha) before being fully contained on September 2, 2022. On June 16, 2023, a 71-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of arson for starting the fire.
Beginning in March 2023, and with increased intensity starting in June, Canada was affected by a record-setting series of wildfires. All 13 provinces and territories were affected, with large fires in Alberta, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec. The 2023 wildfire season had the most area burned in Canada's recorded history, surpassing the 1989, 1995, and 2014 fire seasons, as well as in recorded North American history, surpassing the 2020 Western US wildfire season.
The 2024 Canadian wildfires are an ongoing series of wildfires in Canada. The fires have forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people in communities throughout the country, including Labrador City, and Jasper, Alberta, where the Jasper wildfire has destroyed one-third of the town's structures.
The Ministry of Forestry and Parks (MFP) is a creation of the Alberta government. As of July 2024, it was led by Todd Loewen and its mandate was "To grow Alberta's manufactured wood products and forestry sector, preserving and managing Alberta's public lands and provincial parks."
