There were a total of 5,475 forest fires in Canada in 2023. As of November 2024, the total annual figure from the previous year almost gets surpassed at 5,374 fire stats in Canadian territory. Forest fires in Canada Forest fires in Canada have burned an average of 2.2 million hectares annually since 2000. Forest fires or wildfires are named so because they occur in areas such as woodlands, grasslands, and scrublands. They are not confined to remote forest areas and can cause extensive property damage and threaten the lives of people who live in transitional areas between regions of human habitation and wilderness. Since 2000, forest fires have caused an estimated 3.76 million Canadian dollars annually. A recent major forest fire which began in Fort McMurray, Alberta is likely to be the most economically damaging disaster in Canada’s history, according to insurers. The fires have also affected Alberta’s oil sands operations which have a significant impact on Canada’s GDP. What are the causes of forest fires? The Fort McMurray fire of 2016, like many forest fires, is suspected to have been caused by human activities. Fires started by humans can be intentional, as in the case of arson, or accidental, such as failing to fully extinguish a camp fire or cigarette. The most common natural cause of forest fires is human activity, which accounted for 2,719 fires in 2020.

Get data on forest fires, compiled annually for the National Forestry Database The National Forestry Database includes national forest data and forest management statistics to seve as a credible, accurate and reliable source of information on forest management and its impact on the forest resource. Forest fire data is grouped into eight categories, which are further broken down by geographic location. These include: * number of fires by cause class and response category * area burned by cause class and response category * number of fires by month and response category * area burned by month and response category * number of fires by fire size class and response category * area burned by fire size class and response category * area burned by productivity class, stocking class, maturity class and response category * other fire statistics, such as property losses

In 2023, more than 17.3 million hectares of land had burned in Canada because of forest fires. This was the largest annual land loss due to wildfires since records started. The number of forest fires in Canada stood at around 5,475 in 2023. The cost of Canadian wildfires In Canada, estimated property losses due to forest fires from 1970 to 2020 amounted to almost 250 million Canadian dollars. The province of British Columbia was by far the most affected, with losses of 115.4 million Canadian dollars, followed by Ontario with 57.9 million Canadian dollars.On the human side, the largest evacuation caused by wildfires in the North American country from 1980 to 2019 occurred in 2016, when more than 92,000 people were displaced. The Fort McMurray wildfire – the costliest natural catastrophe in Canadian history – took place that year. A worldwide picture Wildfires have been wreaking havoc around the world in recent years. In 2022 alone, around 5.2 million hectares of tree cover were lost due to wildfires. A year earlier, wildfire tree cover loss reached the peak of the century so far, with more than seven million hectares. In the past century, Russia has seen the largest annual tree cover loss due to wildfires, with an average of 2.5 million hectares. Canada is the second most impacted country in the world, with an average annual loss of roughly 1.3 million hectares during the same period.

There were 2,719 forest fires caused by human activity in Canada in 2020, making it the main cause for wildfires in the country. This was an increase compared to the previous year, when there were 2,400 human activity-caused forest fire.

The forest fire map shows forest fires that occurred mainly in the territory of southern Quebec, i.e. the area located south of the territorial limit of attributable forests. This map data makes it possible to improve knowledge about fire regimes and to meet the specific needs of special management plans following forest fires. They can also be used to meet a variety of study and research needs, such as analyzing the impact of climate change, modeling post-fire regeneration, and studying ecosystem dynamics. This information is obtained from and produced from a variety of sources, including satellite images, aerial photographs, field or aerial surveys, fire scar dating, and archival documents. This data contains four types of mapping as well as fire regime mapping: • Detailed fire mapping, from 1976 to the present. This mapping includes burn types, total burn and partial burn, when information is available. In addition, for fires that have been characterized, information on the classes of burning patterns is added. The minimum mapping area can be up to 0.1 ha, depending on the source products used. This map is partially available for areas located in the north of southern Quebec. • Mapping the simplified contours of fires, from 1972 to today. This map shows the external contours of fires (without fragmentation), in order to represent them globally in a product that is easily usable and can be integrated into current information systems, GPS or others. Resulting from the fusion of detailed fire mapping, this product was designed to meet various customer needs. This map is partially available for the sectors located in the north of southern Quebec. • The mapping of the origin of fires having been listed by the protection organizations (e.g.: SOPFEU) for the period from 1972 to today. This mapping includes the date, the source of ignition (human or lightning) and the protection zone. It is available for all of Quebec. • The mapping of ancient fires concerns fires that occurred between the very end of the 19th century and 1975. This mapping comes from the information present on the forest maps of the first and second inventories, as well as from the information contained on the ecoforest maps of the third and fourth inventories. The dating of these fires is done using various methods, including the analysis of study trees bearing fire scars and the consultation of archival documents. This data is available for the following regions: Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean (02), Bas-Saint-Laurent (02), Bas-Saint-Laurent (01), Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine (11), Abitibi-Témiscamingue (08), Mauricie-Centre-du-Québec (04-17), and Lanaudière-du-Québec (04-17), and Lanaudière-Laurentides (14-15). • Mapping fire regimes in southern Quebec. This map shows 13 zones with distinct fire regimes. These areas were delineated based on available information on the areas burned during the period 1890-2020 and other potentially decisive environmental variables, such as physiography, the abundance of different tree species known to be dependent on fire as well as the location of natural and anthropogenic ignitions. Fire regime mapping covers all forest areas under management as well as a more northern portion that is not managed. The detailed methodology is presented in Forest Research Paper no. 189 “Zoning fire regimes in southern Quebec” (coming soon). This zoning may be useful to ensure better consideration of the risk of fire in a forest management context. It can also serve as a territorial basis for projecting future fire activity taking into account various factors, such as climate change, fire suppression as well as changes in the types of fuels and their distribution on the territory.**This third party metadata element was translated using an automated translation tool (Amazon Translate).**

Wildland fire has a major impact on the sustainability of many Canadian forests. Fire policies attempt to balance suppression costs with values at risk while recognizing the natural role of fire in managing the landscape. There are three aspects of wildland fire in Canada: fire regimes, fire management, and fire research.

The LANDFIRE (LF) Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System (CFFDRS) product depicts fuel types as an identifiable association of fuel elements of distinctive species, form, size, arrangement, and continuity. CFFDRS exhibits characteristic fire behavior under the specified burn conditions. In LF 2022 Canadian fuel models are derived from the Fuel Model Guide to Alaska Vegetation (Alaska Fuel Model Guide Task Group, 2018) and subsequent updates. The LF CFFDRS product contains the fuel models used for the Fire Behavior Prediction (FBP) system fuel type inputs. Default values assigned to the Canadian Fuel Models required to run the Prometheus fire behavior software (Prometheus, 2021) are added as attributes to the LF CFFDRS product. To designate disturbed areas where CFFDRS is modified, the aggregated Annual Disturbance products from 2013 to 2022 in the Fuel Disturbance layer are used. All existing disturbances between 2013-2022 are represented in LF 2022 and the products are intended to be used in 2023, the year of release. The "capable" year terminology used in LF 2020 and LF 2016 Remap is no longer specified given the reduction in latency from when a disturbance occurs to the release date of fuel layers accounting for that disturbance. However, users should still consider adjusting fuel layers for disturbances that occurred after the end of the 2022 fiscal year (after October 1st, 2022) when using the LF 2022 fuel layers, as those changes would not be accounted for. Learn more about LF 2022 at https://landfire.gov/lf_230.php

This dataset shows the locations of ignition points for forest fires less than 40 hectares in size. Fires that grow larger than 40 hectares are mapped in the Fire Disturbance Area dataset.

The Forest Fire Info Map shows active fires, current fire danger and restricted fire zones in place due to high fire danger.

Get data on forest fires, compiled annually for the National Forestry Database The National Forestry Database includes national forest data and forest management statistics to seve as a credible, accurate and reliable source of information on forest management and its impact on the forest resource. Forest fire data is grouped into eight categories, which are further broken down by geographic location. These include: * number of fires by cause class and response category * area burned by cause class and response category * number of fires by month and response category * area burned by month and response category * number of fires by fire size class and response category * area burned by fire size class and response category * area burned by productivity class, stocking class, maturity class and response category * other fire statistics, such as property losses

This web map shows the current wildfires and fire danger zones within Canada. The layers used within this web map are Esri Canada's wildfire live feature services that are updated daily along with NRCan's current fire danger WMS. A description of each layer can be found below along with the link to their respective items on ArcGIS Online.***The live feature services within this webmap are now paused and will not receive data updates until next fire season. April 1st, 2025 is the predicated date for this service to resume***Active Wildfires in CanadaReported active fire locations are updated daily as provided by fire management agencies (provinces, territories and Parks Canada). The fires data is managed through a national Data Integration Project (DIP) coordinated by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) and Natural Resources Canada with participation from all partner agencies. The active fires data includes attributes for agency, fire name, latitude, longitude, start date, fire size (ha) and stage of control (fire status). Possible values for stage of control include: OC (Out of Control), BH (Being Held), UC (Under Control), EX (Out).Supplemental InformationThe national Data Integration Project (DIP) is coordinated by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) and Natural Resources Canada with participation from all partner agencies. This initiative focuses on development and implementation of data standards and enabling the exchange and access of national fire data. More details are available in the CIFFC IM/IT Strategy, available at: https://ciffc.ca/publications/general-publications.Feux de végétation actifs au CanadaLes positions rapportées des feux de végétation actifs sont mises à jour quotidiennement d'après les données fournies par les agences de gestion des feux (provinces, territoires et Parcs Canada). Les données sur les feux sont gérées dans le cadre d'un Projet d'intégration de données national coordonné par le Centre interservices des feux de forêt du Canada (CIFFC) et par Ressources naturelles Canada, avec la participation de tous les organismes partenaires. Les données sur les feux actifs comprennent les champs d'attributs des agences, le nom du feu, la latitude, la longitude, le début du feu, la taille du feu (ha) et le stade de contrôle (état du feu). Les valeurs possibles pour le stade de contrôle sont les suivantes : OC (out of control/hors de contrôle), BH (being held/contenu), UC (under control/maîtrisé) et EX (out/éteint).Renseignements complémentairesLe Projet d'intégration de données national est coordonné par le CIFFC et par Ressources naturelles Canada, avec la participation de tous les organismes partenaires. Cette initiative a pour but d'élaborer et de mettre en œuvre des normes de données, ainsi que de rendre possible l'accès aux données nationales sur les feux et l'échange de ces données. On trouvera plus de détails à ce sujet dans la Stratégie de GI/TI du CIFFC, à l'adresse suivante : https://ciffc.ca/publications/general-publicationsActive Wildfire Perimeters in CanadaThis dataset displays active wildfire perimeters derived from hotspots identified in satellite imagery provided by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System (CWFIS) and Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) updated every 3 hours. || Ce jeu de données, mis à jour toutes les trois heures, affiche les périmètres de feux de forêt actifs dérivés des points chauds relevés dans l’imagerie satellite fournie par le Système canadien d’information sur les feux de végétation (SCIFV) et Ressources naturelles Canada (RNCan).Wildfire Smoke Forecast in CanadaThis layer displays forecasted wildfire smoke across Canada sourced from BlueSky Canada's FireSmoke Canada app, updated every 6 hours. The wildfire smoke layer consists of hourly concentrations of particulate matter 2.5 microns and smaller (PM2.5) in units of micrograms per meter cubed (µg/m3) observed at ground level from wildfires. It is an approximation of when and where wildfire smoke events may occur over the next two days. This layer is sourced from BlueSky Canada's FireSmoke Canada app.Current Fire DangerFire Danger is a relative index of how easy it is to ignite vegetation, how difficult a fire may be to control, and how much damage a fire may do. Fire Danger is a reclassification of the CFFDRS fire weather index (FWI) which is a numeric rating of fire intensity.These general fire descriptions apply to most coniferous forests. The national fire danger maps show conditions as classified by the provincial and territorial fire management agencies. Choice and interpretation of classes may vary between provinces. For fuel-specific fire behavior, consult the Fire Behavior Prediction maps.• Low: Fires likely to be self-extinguishing and new ignitions unlikely. Any existing fires limited to smoldering in deep, drier layers.• Moderate: Creeping or gentle surface fires. Fires easily contained by ground crews with pumps and hand tools.• High: Moderate to vigorous surface fire with intermittent crown involvement. Challenging for ground crews to handle; heavy equipment (bulldozers, tanker trucks, aircraft) often required to contain fire.• Very High: High-intensity fire with partial to full crown involvement. Head fire conditions beyond the ability of ground crews; air attack with retardant required to effectively attack fire's head.• Extreme: Fast-spreading, high-intensity crown fire. Very difficult to control. Suppression actions limited to flanks, with only indirect actions possible against the fire's head.Forecasted weather data provided by Environment Canada. More information about forecasted weather is available at https://cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/background/dsm/fwiMore information about the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI) System is available at https://cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/background/summary/fwiMaps are produced using Spatial Fire Management System and are updated multiple times per day.Maps updated daily, year-round.Supplemental InformationThe Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System (CFFDRS). is a national system for rating the risk of forest fires in Canada.Forest fire danger is a general term used to express a variety of factors in the fire environment, such as ease of ignition and difficulty of control. Fire danger rating systems produce qualitative and/or numeric indices of fire potential, which are used as guides in a wide variety of fire management activities.The CFFDRS has been under development since 1968. Currently, two subsystems–the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI) System and the Canadian Forest Fire Behavior Prediction (FBP) System–are being used extensively in Canada and internationally.Risque d'incendie actuelLe risque d'incendie est un indice relatif indiquant le niveau de facilité pour allumer un incendie de végétation, le niveau de difficulté qu'un incendie peut demander pour être contrôlé ainsi que la quantité de dommages qu'un incendie peut causer.Ces descriptions générales des incendies s'appliquent à la plupart des forêts de conifères. Les cartes nationales sur le danger d'incendie illustrent les conditions telles qu'elles sont classées par les agences provinciales et territoriales de gestion des feux. Le choix et l'interprétation des classes peuvent varier entre les provinces. En ce qui a trait au comportement des incendies en regard du combustible spécifique, veuillez consulter les cartes de prédiction du comportement des incendies.• Faible: Incendie possiblement auto-extincteur; de nouveaux allumages sont invraisemblables. Tout incendie existant est limité à couver dans des couches profondes plus sèches.• Modéré: Incendie de surface rampant modéré. Il est facilement circonscrit par les équipes au sol munies de pompes et d'outils manuels.• Élevé: Incendie de surface modéré à vigoureux avec implication intermittente des cimes. Pose des défis aux équipes chargées de le combattre sur le terrain; les équipements lourds (bouteurs, camions-citernes à eau et avions) sont souvent requis pour contenir l'incendie.• Très élevé: Incendie de forte intensité avec implication partielle ou complète des cimes. Les conditions au front de l'incendie sont au-delà de la capacité des équipes sur le terrain à y faire face; les attaques aériennes avec largage de produits ignifugeants sont requises pour combattre effectivement le front de l'incendie.• Extrême: Feu de cimes à forte intensité et à propagation rapide. Très difficile à contrôler. Les actions de suppression sont limitées aux flancs alors que seules des actions indirectes sont possibles au front de l'incendie.Prévisions météorologiques fournies par Environnement Canada. Pour de plus amples renseignements sur les prévisions, consultez la section Renseignements généraux.De plus amples informations sur la Méthode canadienne de l'indice Forêt-Météo (IFM) sont disponibles à la rubrique Renseignements généraux.Les cartes sont produites à l'aide du Système de gestion spatiale des feux de forêt et sont mises à jour plusieurs fois par jour.Les cartes sont mises à jour quotidiennement, tout au long de l'année l'année.Renseignements complémentairesLa Méthode canadienne d'évaluation des dangers d'incendie de forêt (MCEDIF) est une méthode nationale pour classer le risque d'incendie de forêt au Canada.Le danger d'incendie de forêt est un terme général employé pour exprimer une diversité de facteurs dans les conditions de brûlage tels que la facilité d'allumage et la difficulté de contrôle. Les méthodes d'évaluation du danger d'incendie génèrent des indices qualitatifs ou numériques du potentiel d'incendie qui sont utilisés comme guides dans une grande variété d'activités de gestion des incendies de forêt.La MCEDIF est en cours d'élaboration depuis 1968. En ce moment, deux sous-systèmes – la Méthode

In 2018, the total cost of property lost in Canada as a result of forest fires was estimated to be 3.35 million Canadian dollars. Based on the latest available data, Ontario had forest fire related property losses worth 351,580 Canadian dollars in 2020.

The cost of property losses from wildfires in British Columbia amounted to 115.4 million Canadian dollars between 1970 and 2020. This was the highest overall cost of property losses from wildfires of any Canadian province during this period. Ontario ranked second with property losses amounting to almost 58 million Canadian dollars.

Dataset including information on wildfires in the province of Alberta from 2006 to 2024, inclusive. Information tracked for each fire includes: cause, size, location (latitude and longitude, legal land description, and forest area), time and duration, weather conditions, staffing and physical resources used to suppress the fire, and area burned.

Fire weather refers to weather conditions that are conducive to fire. These conditions determine the fire season, which is the period(s) of the year during which fires are likely to start, spread and do sufficient damage to warrant organized fire suppression. The length of fire season is the difference between the start- and end-of-fire-season dates. These are defined by the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI; http://cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/) start-up and end dates. Start-up occurs when the station has been snow-free for 3 consecutive days, with noon temperatures of at least 12°C. For stations that do not report significant snow cover during the winter (i.e., less than 10 cm or snow-free for 75% of the days in January and February), start-up occurs when the mean daily temperature has been 6°C or higher for 3 consecutive days. The fire season ends with the onset of winter, generally following 7 consecutive days of snow cover. If there are no snow data, shutdown occurs following 7 consecutive days with noon temperatures lower than or equal to 5°C. Historical climate conditions were derived from the 1981–2010 Canadian Climate Normals. Future projections were computed using two different Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP). RCPs are different greenhouse gas concentration trajectories adopted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for its fifth Assessment Report. RCP 2.6 (referred to as rapid emissions reductions) assumes that greenhouse gas concentrations peak between 2010-2020, with emissions declining thereafter. In the RCP 8.5 scenario (referred to as continued emissions increases) greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise throughout the 21st century. Multiple layers are provided. First, the fire season length is shown across Canada for a reference period (1981-2010). Difference in projected fire season length compared to reference period is shown for the short- (2011-2040), medium- (2041-2070), and long-term (2071-2100) under the RCP 8.5 (continued emissions increases) and, for the long-term (2071-2100), under RCP 2.6 (rapid emissions reductions).

Forest fires are an important part of the Canadian landscape. The number of fires and area burned can vary dramatically from year to year, but there are more than 8000 reported wildfires in Canada during a typical year, burning an average of 2.5 million hectares or 25 000 square kilometres. Only 3 percent of fires in Canada reach a final size greater than 200 hectares, but these fires are responsible for 97 percent of the total area burned. This map shows fires greater than 1000 hectares. The data represent a compilation of all fire point location and areas for fires greater than 1000 hectares, as provided by fire management agencies of provinces, territories and Parks Canada.

British Columbia saw the largest number of forest fires in Canada in 2021. That year, there were more than 1,600 individual wildfires in the western province. Alberta followed as the province with the second most numerous wildfires.

In total, the number of forest fires in Canada was nearly 6,600 in 2021.

The number of disastrous wildfires in Canada has increased each decade since the 1980s. The 2010s recorded the largest number of major wildfires in Canada, at 36. In comparison, only nine such disasters occurred in Canada in the 80's.

The Canadian National Fire Database (CNFDB) is a collection of forest fire data from various sources; these data include fire locations (point data) and fire perimeters (polygon data) as provided by Canadian fire management agencies (provinces, territories, and Parks Canada). Fires of all sizes are included in the database, but only those greater than 200 hectares in final size are shown in the map above — these represent a small percentage of all fires but account for most of the area burned (usually more than 97%).

This dataset series refers to the fire danger information provided by the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) [1]. ▷_How to cite: see below_◁

Fire danger (Canadian Fire Weather Index system) information is computed in daily maps over Europe with a forecast from 1 to 10 days of forecasted fire danger level using numerical weather predictions. The module is active all year around, although the core of the wildfire season is, in most countries, from 1st of March to 31st of October. Available components for the Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI) system operated in EFFIS are: the aggregated FWI, the Initial Spread Index (ISI), the Build Up Index (BUI), the Fine Fuel Moisture Code (FFMC), the Duff Moisture Code (DMC), the Drought Code (DC), the Ranking, and the Anomaly.

[1] Van Wagner, C. E., Pickett, T. L., 1985. Equations and FORTRAN program for the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System. Vol. 33 of Forestry Technical Report. Canadian Forestry Service, Ottawa, Canada. https://cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/publications?id=19973

How to cite - When using these data, please cite the relevant data sources. A suggested citation is included in the following:

• San-Miguel-Ayanz, J., Houston Durrant, T., Boca, R., Libertà, G., Branco, A., de Rigo, D., Ferrari, D., Maianti, P., Artés Vivancos, T., Schulte, E., Loffler, P., Benchikha, A., Abbas, M., Humer, F., Konstantinov, V., Pešut, I., Petkoviček, S., Papageorgiou, K., Toumasis, I., Kütt, V., Kõiv, K., Ruuska, R., Anastasov, T., Timovska, M., Michaut, P., Joannelle, P., Lachmann, M., Pavlidou, K., Debreceni, P., Nagy, D., Nugent, C., Di Fonzo, M., Leisavnieks, E., Jaunķiķis, Z., Mitri, G., Repšienė, S., Assali, F., Mharzi Alaoui, H., Botnen, D., Piwnicki, J., Szczygieł, R., Janeira, M., Borges, A., Sbirnea, R., Mara, S., Eritsov, A., Longauerová, V., Jakša, J., Enriquez, E., Lopez, A., Sandahl, L., Reinhard, M., Conedera, M., Pezzatti, B., Dursun, K. T., Baltaci, U., Moffat, A., 2017. Forest fires in Europe, Middle East and North Africa 2016. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg. ISBN:978-92-79-71292-0, https://doi.org/10.2760/17690

• San-Miguel-Ayanz, J., Schulte, E., Schmuck, G., Camia, A., 2013. The European Forest Fire Information System in the context of environmental policies of the European Union. Forest Policy and Economics 29, 19-25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2011.08.012

• San-Miguel-Ayanz, J., Schulte, E., Schmuck, G., Camia, A., Strobl, P., Libertà, G., Giovando, C., Boca, R., Sedano, F., Kempeneers, P., McInerney, D., Withmore, C., de Oliveira, S. S., Rodrigues, M., Houston Durrant, T., Corti, P., Oehler, F., Vilar, L., Amatulli, G., 2012. Comprehensive monitoring of wildfires in Europe: the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). In: Tiefenbacher, J. (Ed.), Approaches to Managing Disaster - Assessing Hazards, Emergencies and Disaster Impacts. InTech, Ch. 5. http://doi.org/10.5772/28441

• Di Giuseppe, F., Pappenberger, F., Wetterhall, F., Krzeminski, B., Camia, A., Libertà, G., San Miguel, J., 2016. The potential predictability of fire danger provided by numerical weather prediction. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology 55 (11), 2469-2491. https://doi.org/10.1175/jamc-d-15-0297.1

Forest fires are an important part of the Canadian landscape. The number of fires and area burned can vary dramatically from year to year, but there are more than 8000 reported wildfires in Canada during a typical year, burning an average of 2.5 million hectares or 25 000 square kilometres. Only 3 percent of fires in Canada reach a final size greater than 200 hectares, but these fires are responsible for 97 percent of the total area burned. This map shows fires greater than 1000 hectares. The data represent a compilation of all fire point location and areas for fires greater than 1000 hectares, as provided by fire management agencies of provinces, territories and Parks Canada.