This is a list of the largest fires of the 21st century.
Rank | Name | Country | Area burned (ha) | Deaths | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2023–2024 Australian bushfire season | ![]() | 144,537,200 | 10 | [1] |
2 | 2002–2003 Australian bushfire season | ![]() | 54,000,000 | 7 | [2] |
3 | 2019–2020 Australian bushfire season | ![]() | 24,300,000–39,800,000 | 33 | [3] [4] [5] |
4 | 2023 Canadian wildfires | ![]() | 18,496,051 | 9 | [6] |
5 | 2021 Russia wildfires | ![]() | 7,800,000–16,100,000 | 0 | [7] |
6 | 2019 Siberia wildfires | ![]() | 7,800,000 | 0 | [8] |
7 | 2014 Northwest Territories fires | ![]() | 3,000,000 | 0 | [9] |
8 | 2020 California wildfires | ![]() | 1,779,730 | 33 | [10] |
9 | 2010 Bolivia forest fires | ![]() | 1,500,000 | 0 | [11] |
10 | 2006–2007 Australian bushfire season | ![]() | 1,300,000 | 5 | [12] |
11 | 2017 British Columbia wildfires | ![]() | 1,148,000 | 0 | [13] |
12 | 2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | 906,495–930,776 | 2 | [14] |
13 | 2017 Chile wildfires | ![]() | 500,000 | 11 | [15] |
14 | 2009 Black Saturday bushfires | ![]() | 401,073 | 173 | [16] |
15 | 2015 Russian wildfires | ![]() | 107,000 | 33 | [17] |
The Black Friday bushfires of 13 January 1939, in Victoria, Australia, were part of the devastating 1938–1939 bushfire season in Australia, which saw bushfires burning for the whole summer, and ash falling as far away as New Zealand. It was calculated that three-quarters of the State of Victoria was directly or indirectly affected by the disaster, while other Australian states and the Australian Capital Territory were also badly hit by fires and extreme heat. This was the third-deadliest bushfire event in Australian history, only behind the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires and the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires.
One of the most extensive bushfire seasons in Australia's history. Victoria experienced the longest continuously burning bushfire complex in Australia's history, with fires in the Victorian Alps and Gippsland burning over 1 million hectares of land over the course of 69 days. See Bushfires in Australia for an explanation of regional seasons.
The 1994 eastern seaboard fires were significant Australian bushfires that occurred in New South Wales, Australia during the bushfire season of 1993–1994. Some 20,000 firefighters were deployed against some 800 fires throughout the state, and along the coast and ranges from Batemans Bay in the south to the Queensland border in the north, including populated areas of the city of Sydney, the Blue Mountains and the Central Coast. The fires caused mass evacuations of many thousands of people, claimed four lives, destroyed some 225 homes and burned out 800,000 hectares of bushland. The firefighting effort raised in response was one of the largest seen in Australian history.
The Australian bushfire season ran from late December 2008 to April/May 2009. Above average rainfalls in December, particularly in Victoria, delayed the start of the season, but by January 2009, conditions throughout South eastern Australia worsened with the onset of one of the region's worst heat waves. On 7 February, extreme bushfire conditions precipitated major bushfires throughout Victoria, involving several large fire complexes, which continued to burn across the state for around one month. 173 people lost their lives in these fires and 414 were injured. 3,500+ buildings were destroyed, including 2,029 houses, and 7,562 people displaced.
Bushfires in Australia are a widespread and regular occurrence that have contributed significantly to shaping the nature of the continent over millions of years. Eastern Australia is one of the most fire-prone regions of the world, and its predominant eucalyptus forests have evolved to thrive on the phenomenon of bushfire. However, the fires can cause significant property damage and loss of both human and animal life. Bushfires have killed approximately 800 people in Australia since 1851, and billions of animals.
A bushfire season occurred predominantly from June 2009 to May 2010. Increased attention has been given to this season as authorities and government attempt to preempt any future loss of life after the Black Saturday bushfires during the previous season, 2008–09. Long range weather observations predict very hot, dry and windy weather conditions during the summer months, leading to a high risk of bushfire occurrence.
The summer of 2012–13 had above average fire potential for most of the southern half of the continent from the east coast to the west. This is despite having extensive fire in parts of the country over the last 12 months. The reason for this prediction is the abundant grass growth spurred by two La Niña events over the last two years.
The 2013 New South Wales bushfires were a series of bushfires in Australia across the state of New South Wales primarily starting, or becoming notable, on 13 October 2013; followed by the worst of the fires beginning in the Greater Blue Mountains Area on 16 and 17 October 2013.
The bushfire season in the summer of 2014–15, was expected to have the potential for many fires in eastern Australia after lower than expected rainfall was received in many areas. Authorities released warnings in the early spring that the season could be particularly bad.
The most destructive bushfire season in terms of property loss since the 2008–09 Australian bushfire season, occurred in the summer of 2015–16, with the loss of 408 houses and at least 500 non-residential buildings as a result of wild fires between 1 June 2015 and 31 May 2016. The season also suffered the most human fatalities since the 2008–09 Australian bushfire season; 6 died in Western Australia, 2 in South Australia and 1 in New South Wales. 8 deaths were as a direct result of fire, and a volunteer firefighter died due to unrelated health complications while on duty.
2019 United Kingdom wildfires were a series of wildfires that began on 26 February 2019 and ended on 18 May 2019. The series of wildfires was considered unusual due to the fact that they took place early in the year. Areas affected by the wildfires in 2019 included those that had already been burnt by wildfires during the summer of 2018. The fires have created many air pollution problems for the UK. The causes of most of the fires have been attributed to much higher than average temperatures and drought conditions that have prevailed since the spring of 2018. There were 137 wildfires larger than 25 hectares (250,000 m2) recorded in the United Kingdom in 2019. This beats the previous record of 79 from 2018.
The 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, or Black Summer, was one of the most intense and catastrophic fire seasons on record in Australia. It included a period of bushfires in many parts of Australia, which, due to its unusual intensity, size, duration, and uncontrollable dimension, was considered a megafire by media at the time. Exceptionally dry conditions, a lack of soil moisture, and early fires in Central Queensland led to an early start to the bushfire season, beginning in June 2019. Hundreds of fires burnt, mainly in the southeast of the country, until May 2020. The most severe fires peaked from December 2019 to January 2020.
A megafire is an exceptional fire that devastates a large area. They are characterised by their intensity, size, duration and uncontrollable scale. There is no precise scientific definition.
The 1974–75 Australian bushfire season is a series of bushfires, also known around the world as wildfires, that burned across Australia. Fires that summer burned up an estimated 117 million hectares. Approximately 15% of Australia's land mass suffered "extensive fire damage" including parts of New South Wales, the Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia.
The 2020–21 Australian bushfire season was the season of summer bushfires in Australia. Following the devastating 2019–20 bushfires in Australia, authorities were urged to prepare early for the 2020–21 Australian bushfire season. The bushfire outlook for July to September 2020 was predicting a normal fire potential in Queensland with a good grass growth in many areas giving an increased risk of grass fires, an above normal season in the Kimberley region of Western Australia as a result of good rains from tropical cyclones, a normal but earlier season in the Northern Territory, an above normal season on the south coast of New South Wales and normal seasons elsewhere.
The 2023–24 Australian bushfire season is the current season of bushfires in Australia. The spring and summer outlook for the season prediction was for increased risk of fire for regions in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and the Northern Territory.
the Commonwealth Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements 'struggled to obtain consistent burnt area data on a national scale', and found estimates of area burnt that ranged from 24.3 to 33.8 million hectares (…) The Commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment subsequently developed the National Indicative Aggregated Fire Extent Datasets in 2020, which estimated 39.8 million hectares were burnt in the 2019–20 fires.
forest fires that have burned more than 62,300 square miles since the beginning of the year, according to Greenpeace (…) The ministry estimates that the area burned in forest fires this year at slightly more than 30,000 square miles