List of historical forest fires

The list of historical forest fires names forest fires worldwide. It does not claim to be complete.

list

19th century

Beginning	The End	designation	place	Area (in km²)	Notes and links
October 8, 1871		Peshtigo firestorm	Wisconsin , United States	4,900	between 1200 and 2500 dead

20th century

Beginning	The End	designation	place	Area (in km²)	Notes and links
1910		Great fire of 1910	Washington , Idaho , Montana , United States	12,000	86 dead
February 28, 1911			Styria, A	0.8	Triggered by flying sparks from a steam locomotive and a strong wind, 80 hectares of high forest burned. 224 soldiers of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Unfanteriregiment helped.
October 3, 1933	October 4, 1933	Griffith Park Fire	Los Angeles , United States	0.19	29 fire-fighting civilians killed.
August 3, 1936		Fire disaster in Kurscha	Kurscha-2 , Soviet Union		about 1200 dead
4th August 1949	August 6, 1949	Man gulch forest fire	Lewis and Clark County , United States	~ 5	13 dead
August 19, 1949	August 27, 1949	Incendie de la Forêt des Landes de 1949	Landes and Gironde , France	> 500	82 dead (fire fighters, volunteers, soldiers), several hundred injured
1966		Forest fire	Sintra , Portugal	?	near Lisbon, 7 days duration, 25 dead (military). Largest forest fire to date in Portugal.
November 1, 1966	3rd November 1966	Loop fire	Los Angeles County , United States	8th	12 dead firefighters
August 8, 1975	18th August 1975	Fire in the Lüneburg Heath	Lower Saxony , Germany	74	6 dead firefighters (5 burned in action; 1 died in action from a heart attack)
February 16, 1983		Bushfires in Victoria and South Australia in 1983	Australia	4,180	75 dead, over 2,500 injured
June 1988	November 1988	Yellowstone National Park fires in 1988	United States	3.213	largest forest fire in Yellowstone National Park on record
May 22, 1992	June 1992	Forest fire near Weißwasser in 1992	Germany , Saxony	16	largest forest fire in Saxony; a firefighter died in a traffic accident while on duty
April 21, 1996		Forest fire in Niederhaverbeck , Lüneburg Heath	Lower Saxony , Germany	3-4	The fire was preceded by a weeks of dry and hot spells (~ 30 ° C) in March / April.

21st century

Beginning	The End	designation	place	Area (in km²)	Notes and links
October 20, 2007	November 8, 2007	2007 Southern California wildfires	Southern California , United States	2,800	10 dead, damage amounting to more than 1 billion US dollars
February 7, 2009	March 6, 2009	Victoria Bushfire 2009	Australia	4,300	173 dead, so far largest fire disaster in Australia
July 29, 2010	September 2010	Forest and peat fires in Russia in 2010	Russia	1,880	More than 700 individual fires, at least 50 dead
December 2, 2010	December 6, 2010	Forest fire in Israel 2010	Carmel Mountains , Israel	50	Largest forest fire in the country's history, 44 dead
August 18, 2012	20th August 2012	Chios forest fire 2012	Mastichochoria , Chios , Greece	70	Further forest fires in different areas, destruction of the historic mastic trees
17th August 2013	October 25, 2013	Rim Fire	Yosemite National Park , California , United States	1.010	Forest fire potentially threatening San Francisco's water supplies
September 12, 2015		Valley Fire	Northern California , United States	308	> 1000 houses destroyed,> 1200 people fled
May 1, 2016	July 21, 2016	Forest fire at Fort McMurray 2016	Fort McMurray , Canada	5,817	Largest fire disaster to date in Alberta , 580,000 hectares of forest destroyed, around 80,000 people evacuated, 2,400 buildings destroyed
August 7, 2016 (or earlier)		Forest fire on La Palma	La Palma , Spain	25-48	A 27-year-old German set fire to toilet paper and evacuated 2,500 people
August 8, 2016		Forest fire in Madeira	Funchal , Madeira , Portugal		150 houses, 1000 people evacuated, 3 dead
August 10, 2016	11th August 2016	Forest fire north of Marseille	Vitrolles , France	33	5000 evacuated, 33 injured, 2 dead, 1800 firefighters, 12 fire-fighting aircraft, 400 police officers, wind 80–100 km / h (mistral gusts) at up to 37 ° C
15th January 2017		Forest fires in Chile (2017)	Regions Metropolitana to Araucanía, Chile	3,873 (as of January 27, 2017)	Worst forest fires in Chilean history, 11 dead; Santa Olga (1000 houses) in the Maule region completely destroyed.
17th June 2017	June 22, 2017 ("completely under control")	Forest fires in Portugal 2017	Pedrogao Grande , Portugal	at least 260	Presumably ignited by lightning without rain. 66 dead.
before July 7, 2017	September 20, 2017 (end of evacuation) December 5, 2017 (official end of fire season)	British Columbia forest fires 2017	around Williams Lake and elsewhere, British Columbia , Canada	In total at least 12,000	State of emergency declared on July 7th. Between July 7 and 16, 36,000–37,000 people left their homes. ~ 1.3% of the area of ​​the province has been destroyed. From April to November 2017, more than 1300 fires were registered and caused more than C $ 560 million in damage.
July 8, 2017		Northern California forest fires, July 2017	San Luis Obispo and other areas, California , United States	In total at least 150	If the air temperature is unusually high. Since December 5th also in Ventura . 2 dead in December 2017.
February 2018	November 2018	California wildfires 2018	California, United States	About 8,000	Mendocino Complex 1200 km 2
Mid-July 2018		Forest fires in Sweden 2018	Central Sweden and north of Stockholm , Sweden	21.7. still 250 km²	Unusually high air temperatures, drought, no fire-fighting planes in Sweden.
23rd July 2018		Forest fires in Attica 2018	Attica region , Greece	~ 68	Min. 98 dead and more than 179 injured
July 26, 2018	July 27, 2018	Forest fire near Fichtenwalde	Fichtenwalde, Potsdam-Mittelmark , Germany	1-2	Heat wave, period of drought, eruption on the motorway embankment, more difficult operation due to exploding remains of ordnance from the Second World War.
July 2018	September 7, 2017 (end of the provincial emergency)	British Columbia forest fires in 2018	British Columbia , Canada	In total at least 13,000	Even more numerous fires than in 2017. In mid-August, around 650 fires were burning in the province at the same time. By the end of August, a total of more than 1,600 fires were burning in the province. In the mass there were only small fires, but four fires reached a size of more than 1000 km 2 and one even reached 3000 km 2 . The largest fire destroyed large areas in the forests northeast of Bella Coola , in the provincial parks that existed there .
August 2018		Forest fire near Treuenbrietzen	Brandenburg , Germany	approx 4	At times, up to 500 people had to leave their homes. Extinguishing work was made considerably more difficult by remains of ammunition in the forest area.
3rd August 2018	11th August 2018	Forest fires in the Monchique Mountains	Monchique , Algarve , Portugal	270	41 injured, including 22 fire fighters, 9 completely destroyed and over 30 uninhabitable primary residences, at least 49 people who became homeless, numerous dead animals
November 8, 2018	November 25, 2018 (fire finally contained)	Camp Fire	Butte County , California, United States	62	86 civilians killed. More than 18,500 buildings destroyed or damaged. More than 4,000 firefighters in action.
2019	ongoing (as of August 26, 2019)	Forest fires in Indonesia	Borneo , Sumatra and a. Indonesia	At least 3,200
April 4, 2019, evening	ongoing, main fire under control (as of April 5, 2019)		Goseong , South Korea	at least 1 (as of April 5, 2019)	11 injured. In the mountainous region near North Korea (45 km) 400 houses and 500 hectares of land were burned quickly. Almost 4,000 people evacuated, around 26,500 emergency services and soldiers, hundreds of emergency vehicles, 32 helicopters. National emergency.
July 2019	September 2019	Forest fires in Siberia	Siberia, Russia	90,000	The areas of Yakutia, Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk are particularly affected.
July 2019	October 2019 (as of November 2020)	Forest fires in the Amazon rainforest 2019	Amazon Rainforest, Brazil , Bolivia (and to a lesser extent Paraguay )	Total 36,000: Rainforest Bolivia 9,500 Brazil 12,500 Dry forest Bolivia 14,000	The smoke development even clouded the city of São Paulo 2700 km away in mid / late August .
2019	December 2019	Forest fires in California 2019	California , United States	1,000	A state of emergency was declared in California on October 27, 2019 .
2019	ongoing (as of January 22, 2020)	Forest and bush fires in Australia 2019/2020	Victoria , New South Wales and South Australia , Australia	About 180,000
April 2020	ongoing (as of April 26, 2020)	Forest fire around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which was involved in an accident in 1986	Ukraine	115 (as of April 17, 2020)	radioactive smoke from fire 1000 km of fire protection aisles built.
	7th July 2020		Ukraine, Luhansk region	120	6 dead, orf.at 8.7.2020
	2nd August 2020		near San Bernardino , California, USA	80	almost 7,800 evacuees

See also

• List of fire disasters
• List of disasters

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Number of deaths has risen to over 60: “Fire rages with great force” orf.at, June 18, 2017, accessed June 18, 2017.
2. ↑ 1,000 houses destroyed by forest fires. news.ORF.at , September 14, 2015.
3. ↑ Return with restrictions after the Fort McMurray forest fires. Tagesschau.de , as of May 31, 2016.
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Situation in the south of France “out of control”. news.ORF.at, August 11, 2016.
5. ↑ Fire on La Palma already destroyed 2,500 hectares of pine forest. Salzburger Nachrichten , August 5, 2016.
6. ↑ The fire in Madeira rages on: 150 houses destroyed. Kurier.at , August 11, 2016.
7. ↑ Forest fires blaze just before Marseille. Tagesschau.de, as of August 11, 2016.
8. ↑ 2017 Global Distasters , page 5, opinion published January 24, 2018, accessed July 27, 2018.
9. ↑ Fires force thousands of Canadians to flee orf.at, July 17, 2017, accessed July 17, 2017.
10. ↑ BC year in review 2017: wildfires devastate the province like never before global news, December 25, 2017, accessed September 6, 2018.
11. ↑ Forest fires in California: 5,000 firefighters in action orf.at, July 10, 2017, accessed July 10, 2017.
12. ↑ Forest fires in California force tens of thousands to flee In: nzz.ch, December 5, 2017, accessed on December 5, 2017.
13. ↑ Endless fight against fires in California: Critical Weather Forecast orf.at, December 15, 2017, accessed December 15, 2017.
14. ↑ 2018 Incident Archive . State of California. Accessed January 31, 2020.
15. ↑ Fires in Sweden can hardly be extinguished: Help from several countries orf.at, July 20 and 21, 2018, accessed July 21, 2018.
16. ↑ Wildfire Statistics - Current Statistics BC Government, accessed November 13, 2018.
17. ^ Forest fire in Brandenburg: Was it arson? In: Spiegel Online . August 26, 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed August 26, 2018]). {
18. ↑ Benedict Witzenberger: Where the front ran, there is ammunition - and now the forest is burning . In: sueddeutsche.de . August 24, 2018, ISSN  0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed August 26, 2018]).
19. ↑ Fire extinguished in the Algarve , accessed October 15, 2018.
20. ↑ Camp Fire Incident Information Cal Fire, accessed April 5, 2019.
21. ↑ Increase in the number of victims: Fires in California continue to be "extreme" orf.at, November 11, 2018, accessed November 11, 2018.
22. ↑ Rainforests go up in smoke. In: taz.de. Retrieved January 7, 2020 . 
23. ^ Emergency in South Korea due to huge forest fire orf.at, April 5, 2019, accessed April 5, 2019.
24. ↑ Russian forest administration declares forest fires extinguished. September 30, 2019, accessed January 5, 2020 . 
25. ↑ Huge forest fires in Siberia taz.de, accessed July 31, 2019.
26. ↑ Bolsonaro sends military to fight fires in the Amazon region. August 26, 2019. Retrieved August 26, 2019 . 
27. ↑ Gunther Willinger: Different ecosystem, same reasons: In Bolivia more forest burns than in Brazil. In: Spektrum.de . November 6, 2019, accessed January 31, 2020 . 
28. ↑ Christoph Gurk: Forest fire in the Amazon - fire free. Retrieved August 22, 2019 . 
29. ↑ 2019 Incident Archive . State of California. Accessed January 31, 2020.
30. ↑ Christoph Gurk: Fire in California: Governor declares a state of emergency. Retrieved October 28, 2019 . 
31. ^ Ten impacts of the Australian bushfires. In: United Nations Environment Program. UN Environment, January 22, 2020, accessed January 13, 2020 . 
32. ^ Forest fire near Chernobyl - Dangerous smoke over Kiev. In: srf.ch . April 17, 2020, accessed April 18, 2020 . 
33. ↑ All about nuclear power plant ruins: Unclear situation in the event of fires near Chernobyl orf.at, April 14, 2020, accessed April 15, 2020.
34. ↑ Ukraine recalls the Chernobyl disaster orf.at, April 26, 2020, accessed April 26, 2020.
35. ↑ California Fire Out of Control orf.at, August 3, 2020, accessed August 3, 2020.

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