List of fires
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This article is a list of notable fires.


Town and city fires


Building or structure fires


Transportation fires


Mining (including oil and natural gas drilling) fires

This is a partial list of fire due to
mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the econom ...
: man-made structures to extract minerals, ores, rock, petroleum, natural gas, etc. *


Forest and countryside fires

* 1933 Griffith Park Fire in
Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
, killed 29 firefighters on October 3 * 1933 Tillamook Burn,
Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
* 1936 Kursha-2, 1200 killed * 1936
Bandon, Oregon Bandon () is a city in Coos County, Oregon, United States, on the south side of the mouth of the Coquille River. It was named by George Bennet, an Irish peer, who settled nearby in 1873 and named the town after Bandon in Ireland, his hometown ...
, Bandon's entire commercial district was destroyed, total loss stated at the time was US$3 million, with 11 fatalities. * 1937 Blackwater fire of 1937 in
Shoshone National Forest Shoshone National Forest ( ) is the first federally protected National Forest in the United States and covers nearly in the state of Wyoming. Originally a part of the Yellowstone Timberland Reserve, the forest is managed by the United States ...
in
Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to t ...
, killed 15 firefighters on August 21 * 1939
Black Friday bushfires 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 ca ...
in Australia. 71 people killed. * 1949 The great forest fire of 1949 in the Landes Forest, wildfire, lost, 82 people killed. * 1949
Mann Gulch fire The Mann Gulch fire was a wildfire reported on August 5, 1949, in a gulch located along the upper Missouri River in the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness (then known as the Gates of the Mountains Wild Area), Helena National Forest, in the U.S. ...
* 1953 Rattlesnake Fire, set by an arsonist named Stan Pattan, in
Mendocino National Forest The Mendocino National Forest is located in the Coastal Mountain Range in northwestern California and comprises 913,306 acres (3,696 km2). It is the only national forest in the state of California without a major paved road entering it ...
near Willows, California, killed 15 firefighters on July 9 * 1963 Paraná forest fire, 20,000 square kilometres destroyed, killing at least 110, with 5,000 houses burned in September. * 1966 Serra de Sintra forest fire, outskirt of
Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administrative limits w ...
, Portugal, destroyed, killing 26. * 1967
1967 Tasmanian fires The 1967 Tasmanian fires were an Australian natural disaster which occurred on 7 February 1967, an event which came to be known as the Black Tuesday bushfires. They were the most deadly bushfires that Tasmania has ever experienced, leaving 62 p ...
in
Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...
, Australia, 62 killed and over 900 injured. * 1971Kure forest fire,
Kure is a port and major shipbuilding city situated on the Seto Inland Sea in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. With a strong industrial and naval heritage, Kure hosts the second-oldest naval dockyard in Japan and remains an important base for the Japan ...
, western
Honshū , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island sepa ...
, Japan, 18 firefighters killed on April 27 * 1975 Fire on the Lüneburg Heath in north Germany, 80 square kilometres destroyed, 7 fatalities including 5 firefighters killed on August 10 * 1983
Ash Wednesday bushfires The Ash Wednesday bushfires, known in South Australia as Ash Wednesday II, were a series of bushfires that occurred in south-eastern Australia on 16 February 1983, which was Ash Wednesday. Within twelve hours, more than 180 fires fanned by hot ...
killed 75 people and injured more than 2600 others in South Australia and Victoria. * 1987 1987 Daxing'anling wildfire in
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
, burned for a month * 1988
Yellowstone fires of 1988 The Yellowstone fires of 1988 collectively formed the largest wildfire in the recorded history of Yellowstone National Park in the United States. Starting as many smaller individual fires, the flames quickly spread out of control due to drought ...
largest, most expensive wildfire in the history of the National Park Service, at the world's first national park. * 1991
Oakland firestorm of 1991 : The Oakland firestorm of 1991 was a large suburban wildland–urban interface conflagration that occurred on the hillsides of northern Oakland, California, and southeastern Berkeley over the weekend of October 19–20, 1991, before being b ...
, Oakland, California, U.S., killed 25 people and injured 150 others. * 1994 Isabela Island forest fire, Galápagos Island, Ecuador, 12 km² lost in April. * 1994 South Canyon Fire on Storm King Mountain near
Glenwood Springs, Colorado Glenwood Springs is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality that is the county seat of Garfield County, Colorado, Garfield County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 9,963 at the 2020 Uni ...
kills fourteen firefighters on July 6. * 2002
Biscuit Fire The Biscuit Fire was a massive wildfire in 2002 that burned nearly in the Rogue River–Siskiyou National Forest, in southern Oregon and northern California, in the Western United States. The fire was named after Biscuit Creek in southern Orego ...
, the largest wildfire in the recorded history of Oregon * 2003 Canberra bushfires,
Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding township#Aust ...
, 4 killed and 435 injured * 2003 Cedar Fire, destroyed over 550 homes and many acres of land, Southern California * 2003
2003 Okanagan Mountain Park Fire On August 16, 2003, at about 4 a.m. local time, a wildfire started via lightning strike near Rattlesnake Island in Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park, British Columbia, Canada. The wildfire was fuelled by a constant wind and the driest sum ...
, British Columbia * 2005
Eyre Peninsula bushfire The Eyre Peninsula bushfire of 2005, an event also known locally as Black Tuesday and by South Australian Government agencies as the Wangary bushfire, was a bushfire that occurred during January 2005 on the lower part of the Eyre Peninsula, a si ...
,
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest o ...
, 9 killed, at least 113 injured and 79 houses destroyed * 2006 Pilliga forest fire burned out 740 km² on just its first day * 2007
October 2007 California wildfires The October 2007 California wildfires, also known as the Fall 2007 California firestorm, were a series of about thirty wildfires (17 of which became major wildfires) that began igniting across Southern California on October 20. At least 1,500 h ...
* 2008 Summer 2008 California wildfires, second costliest in US history to extinguish. * 2009
Black Saturday bushfires The Black Saturday bushfires were a series of bushfires that either ignited or were already burning across the Australian state of Victoria on and around Saturday, 7 February 2009, and were among Australia's all-time worst bushfire disasters. T ...
In February, at the end of the early 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave, bushfires swept through the Australian state of
Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...
killing 180 people, injuring around 500, destroying at least 2029 homes. * 2010
2010 Russian wildfires The 2010 Russian wildfires were several hundred wildfires that broke out across Russia, primarily in the west in summer 2010. They started burning in late July and lasted until early September 2010. The fires were associated with record-high t ...
, 2000 buildings, 8000 km² destroyed, 54 killed. * 2010 Mount Carmel forest fire in Israel led to 44 fatalities. * 2011Fires across parts of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, during the
Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samue ...
holidays, destroying many parks and forests. * 2011Summer fire outbreak across Texas claimed almost 4 million acres in over 21,000 fires. Approximately 7,000 homes were lost and approximately 50,000 homes in direct danger were saved by fire departments across the state. * 2011Two wildfires burn in
Bastrop, Texas Bastrop () is a city and the county seat of Bastrop County, Texas, United States. The population was 9,688 according to the 2020 census. It is located about southeast of Austin and is part of the Greater Austin metropolitan area. History Spani ...
; 2 people killed, 34,000 acres burned, over 1000 houses and other structures destroyed * 2011Swinley Forest, UK, 12 fire services attended from various counties to extinguish this forest fire in Berkshire. * 2015 Sampson Flat bushfires, Mount Lofty Ranges,
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest o ...
, destroyed 12,500 hectares (31,000 acres) of native forest, farmland, vineyards and 27 houses, with no human fatalities * 2016 A series of wildfires raged across mainland
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...
and the Portuguese
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of
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. * 2017 Between 30 and 40
gorse ''Ulex'' (commonly known as gorse, furze, or whin) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. The genus comprises about 20 species of thorny evergreen shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. The species are ...
fires raged across the country relandbetween late April and early May. Cloosh Valley saw the worst of these fires with of forest damaged. * 2017 A series of wildfires, burn across Pedrógão Grande and Nodeirinho in
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...
, killing at least 66 people and injuring at least 204 others. * 2017 Fires consumed hundreds of thousands of acres of
Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
's
Deschutes National Forest The Deschutes National Forest is a United States National Forest located in parts of Deschutes, Klamath, Lake, and Jefferson counties in central Oregon. It comprises along the east side of the Cascade Range. In 1908, the Deschutes National F ...
,
Columbia River Gorge The Columbia River Gorge is a canyon of the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Up to deep, the canyon stretches for over as the river winds westward through the Cascade Range, forming the boundary between the st ...
National Scenic Area, and the
Willamette National Forest The Willamette National Forest is a National Forest located in the central portion of the Cascade Range of the U.S. state of Oregon. It comprises . Over 380,000 acres (694 mi2, 1,540 km2) are designated wilderness which include seve ...
during August and September, causing evacuations and road closures. Fires included the Chetco Bar Fire and the Eagle Creek Fire, which also spread into
Skamania County, Washington Skamania County () is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 12,036. The county seat and largest incorporated city is Stevenson, although the Carson River Valley CDP is more populous. The ...
, United States. *2018
Camp Fire A campfire is a fire at a campsite that provides light and warmth, and heat for cooking. It can also serve as a beacon, and an insect and predator deterrent. Established campgrounds often provide a stone or steel fire ring for safety. Campfires ...
in California. Began November 8, 2018; caused 85 deaths and destroyed 18,804 structures. *2018
Woolsey Fire The Woolsey Fire was a wildfire that burned in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties of the U.S. state of California. The fire ignited on November 8, 2018, and burned of land. The fire destroyed 1,643 structures, killed three people, and prompted th ...
in California, which broke out on the same day as the Camp Fire. Resulted in three deaths and the destruction of 1,643 structures, among them, the homes of notable celebrities. *2019
2019 Nelson fires The Pigeon Valley Fire was a wildfire in the Tasman District and briefly the largest wildfire in New Zealand history before being surpassed by the Lake Ōhau Fire a year later. The fire began on the afternoon of the 5th of February following ...
– Two wildfires, 20 kilometres apart in Nelson and
Tasman District Tasman District () is a local government district in the northwest of the South Island of New Zealand. It borders the Canterbury Region, West Coast Region, Marlborough Region and Nelson City. It is administered by the Tasman District Council, ...
, New Zealand, started on 5 February 2019. The Pigeon Valley fire was described as the country's largest since 1955 and New Zealand's largest aerial firefight on record with 22 helicopters involved. *2019 Gospers Mountain bushfire – Starting on October 29, 2019, this rapidly became the largest single-ignition fire from lightning strike Australia has ever seen, reaching over with a perimeter of , the Gospers Mountain Fire has officially been set to contained on January 13, 2020, at 12:00. *2020 Cagua fire – On 23 January 2020, a fire was started in the ''Agrícola del Lago'' reed bed in Cagua,
Aragua Aragua State ( es, Estado Aragua, ) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. It is located in the north-central region of Venezuela. It has plains and jungles and Caribbean beaches. The most popular are Cata and Choroni. It has Venezuela's first n ...
state,
Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
. Eleven people were confirmed to have died as a result of the fire, all but two being minors.


See also

*List of fires by locations **
List of fires in Canada This is a list of fires in Canada. Numbers for buildings only include those destroyed, and area is given in hectares and is converted to acres. List See also * List of Canadian disasters by death toll * List of fires in British Columbia * ...
**
List of fires in China This is a list of notable fires in China, part of the series of lists of disasters in China. This list includes British Hong Kong and Manchukuo. Structural fire Entertainment venues Particularly fires in theatres and night clubs. Non-enterta ...
** List of fires in Kyoto ** List of fires in Nigeria *
List of accidents and disasters by death toll This is a list of accidents and disasters by death toll. It shows the number of fatalities associated with various explosions, structural fires, flood disasters, coal mine disasters, and other notable accidents caused by the effects of neglig ...
* List of the largest artificial non-nuclear explosions


References


Further reading

* Irish Examiner article on 1875 fire {{DEFAULTSORT:Fires
fires Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames are pr ...
*