Canada Wildfire Archive
Historical wildfire statistics for every province and territory: yearly trends, the largest fires on record, and human impact, compiled from official Canadian National Fire Database records.
Canada wildfire statistics
Filter by year or time range; every count and chart below updates to match.
Acres burned by year
Fires recorded by year
Top provinces by acres burned
1990–2023Key facts: wildfires in Canada
Canada has recorded 11,399 wildfires since 1990, burning about 231.5M acres: an average of 335 fires and 6.8M acres per year.
The worst fire year on record in this dataset is 2023, when roughly 40.9M acres burned.
The largest single fire on record here is the 2023 Holdover DONNIE CREEK fire (2023) in British Columbia, at 1,529,762 acres.
Northwest Territories records the most fires of any province, averaging 59 per year since 1990.
Province explorer
Total recorded fires per region. Tap any region for its live map and full history.
Largest fires on record
The biggest fires we track for each province. Search by name, filter by region or decade, and sort by size, date, deaths, or cost.
24 fires match
- 2023 Holdover DONNIE CREEK2023British Columbia · 1,529,762 acres
- 10sr-Pasfield2010Saskatchewan · 1,119,743 acres
- Deer1993Saskatchewan · 745,555 acres
- 2023 Holdover G902882023British Columbia · 716,787 acres
- 2023 Holdover Ekwan Tower2023British Columbia · 679,675 acres
- Ea0962021Manitoba · 671,387 acres
- Tocker1995Saskatchewan · 607,879 acres
- 15bn-Ron2015Saskatchewan · 605,993 acres
- Basset Fire2023Alberta · 578,377 acres
- 06ll-Murzin2006Saskatchewan · 515,314 acres
- Long Lake Complex2023Alberta · 501,678 acres
- Pembina Complex2023Alberta · 498,938 acres
- Ea0442021Manitoba · 429,041 acres
- 2023 Holdover G906282023British Columbia · 428,365 acres
- 2023 Holdover Big Creek2023British Columbia · 412,312 acres
- Kimiwan2023Alberta · 353,457 acres
- Dl10091995Alberta · 327,856 acres
- Ea1452021Manitoba · 215,737 acres
- We0322021Manitoba · 158,431 acres
- We0642021Manitoba · 139,723 acres
- Paradise Lake2022Newfoundland and Labrador · 41,392 acres
- Julien River2023Newfoundland and Labrador · 26,094 acres
- Bay d'Espoir Hwy Com2022Newfoundland and Labrador · 13,872 acres
- Webb's Bay2023Newfoundland and Labrador · 11,990 acres
Data sources
Canadian National Fire Database
Large-fire records (200+ hectares) per province from the CNFDB, maintained by the Canadian Forest Service. Large fires account for roughly 97% of area burned in Canada.
CWFIS live data
Current-season fires come from the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System and roll into the archive as seasons close.
United States archive