List of fires in Canada

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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[edit]

Article Location Province Year Deaths Damage Buildings Area in ha/a Notes
1825 Miramichi fire Northern New Brunswick New Brunswick 1825 160 to 300 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 hectares (2,500,000 to 4,900,000 acres)[1] A series of wildfires that burned in October 1825
Great Fire of 1846 St. John's Newfoundland 1846 3 £888,356 600 hectares (1,500 acres)
Great Fire of 1852 Montreal Province of Canada (Quebec) 1852 0 Nearly half of city's housing destroyed
Saguenay Fire Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec Quebec 1870 7 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) Nearly 1/3 of the population lost everything.
1877 Great Fire of Saint John, New Brunswick Saint John New Brunswick 1877 19 $28,000,000[2]
Great Vancouver Fire Vancouver British Columbia 1886 24 to 28[3] $1,300,000
Calgary Fire of 1886 Calgary North-West Territories (in modern-day Alberta) 1886 0 $103,200
Great Fire of 1892 St. John's Newfoundland 1892 $13,000,000
1900 Hull–Ottawa fire Hull Quebec 1900 7 $956,962.77
Great Toronto Fire Toronto Ontario 1904 0 $10,350,000 180 hectares (440 acres)
Great Porcupine Fire Timmins Ontario 1911 73 to 200 199,915 hectares (494,000 acres)
Matheson Fire Black River-Matheson Ontario 1916 223[4] to 244[5] 49 townships[5] 200,000 hectares (490,000 acres) The worst fire on record in Ontario's history. Destroyed 49 townships, including the villages of Kelso, Val Gagné, and Iroquois Falls.[5]
Great Fire of 1919 Saskatchewan and eastern Alberta Alberta
Saskatchewan		 1919 11[6] 2,000,000 hectares (4,900,000 acres) The first major fire at the wildland-urban interface of the Prairie Provinces.[7]
Great Fire of 1922 Timiskaming District Ontario 1922 43 $2,000,000 168,000 hectares (420,000 acres)
Mississagi Fire of 1948 Mississagi River Ontario 1948 1[8] 280,000 hectares (690,000 acres) The fire destroyed of land over a two-month period between Chapleau and Thessalon.[5]
Chinchaga fire Northern British Columbia and Alberta Alberta
British Columbia		 1950 0 1,400,000 to 1,700,000 hectares (3,500,000 to 4,200,000 acres) Largest recorded single fire in North American history
Unnamed Manitoba  Manitoba 1989 100 homes 2,500,000 hectares (6,200,000 acres) Drought conditions in Manitoba caused over 1,200 fires to spring up throughout the province.[5][9][10]
Hagersville Tire Fire Hagersville, Ontario  Ontario 1990 0 0 Unknown 7.3 hectares (18.03 acres) Significant ecological damage caused by the melting of 12-14 million tires over 17 days.
2001 Chisholm Wildfire Chisholm  Alberta 2001 60+ 116,000 hectares (290,000 acres) [5]
McLure fire North Thompson River  British Columbia 2003 0 $31.9 Million[11] 81 26,420 hectares (65,300 acres) 3,800 people evacuated[11]
Okanagan Mountain Park Fire Central Okanagan  British Columbia 2003 0 $33.8 Million[12] 239 25,912 hectares (64,030 acres)
West Kelowna wildfires West Kelowna  British Columbia 2009 0 $403 million[13] 4 9,877 hectares (24,410 acres) Three separate wildfires
May 2010 Quebec wildfires La Tuque  Quebec 2010 0 90,000 hectares (220,000 acres)
2011 Slave Lake Wildfire Slave Lake  Alberta 2011 1 (helicopter crash) CAD $750 million[14] 433 4,700 hectares (12,000 acres) One-third of town destroyed.[15]
Richardson Fire Richardson Backcountry  Alberta 2011 0 $350 to $450 million[16] 700,000 hectares (1,700,000 acres) largest fire in Alberta since the 1950 Chinchaga fire.
Timmins Fire 9 Timmins  Ontario 2012 0 39,540 hectares (97,700 acres)[17] Starting North of Gogama, Timmins 9 was the largest fire the area had seen in nearly a 100 years since the 1911 Great Porcupine Fire
2014 Northwest Territories fires Northwest Territories  Northwest Territories 2014 0 $56.1 million[18] 3,400,000 ha (8,400,000 acres)[18] Said to have been the largest wildfires in 30 years in the Northwest Territories[19] Note: Damage is the cost of fire fighting
2016 Fort McMurray wildfire Northern Alberta (incl. Fort McMurray) and Saskatchewan  Alberta
 Saskatchewan		 2016 2
(indirect)[20]		 $9.9 billion (direct and indirect costs)[21][22][23] 3,244 589,552 hectares (1,456,810 acres) Largest wildfire evacuation in Alberta's history.[24] Costliest disaster in Canadian history, cost of CAD$3.58 billion in July, estimate up to $9 billion.
2017 British Columbia wildfires Central and South Interior, and Alberta  Alberta
 British Columbia		 2017 0 $586 million [25] 305+[26] 1,216,053 hectares (3,004,930 acres)[27] Estimated 65,000 [25] evacuated. Largest single wildfire in BC Wildfire history
2017 Alberta fires Alberta, Saskatchewan  Alberta
 Saskatchewan 		2017 1[28] 14+[28] Fires possibly caused by power lines downed in a storm.[29]
North Bay 69 Temagami  Ontario 2018 0 221 hectares (550 acres)
2018 Parry Sound forest fire Parry Sound District  Ontario 2018 0 11,362.5 hectares (28,077 acres)
2018 British Columbia wildfires British Columbia  British Columbia 2018 50+ [30] 1,298,454 hectares (3,208,550 acres) Initial estimates put 2018 as the largest total burn-area in any British Columbia wildfire season, surpassing the 2017 wildfire season.[31]
2019 Alberta wildfires Northwestern and Central Alberta  Alberta 2019 16[32] 883,414 hectares (2,182,960 acres)[33] Both lightning and human activity have been contributed to the cause, as well several are under investigation.[33] (*as of October 18, 2019)
Lytton wildfire Lytton  British Columbia 2021 Fire started after a record breaking heatwave
2023 Nova Scotia wildfires Nova Scotia  Nova Scotia 2023 0 250+ 24,128 hectares (59,622 acres) 18,000 evacuated. Ongoing, cause undetermined as of June 6, 2023.
2023 Alberta wildfires Alberta  Alberta 2023 1,220,000 hectares (3.0 million acres)

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Great Miramichi Fire: The largest fire ever in eastern North America". GNB. Archived from the original on October 13, 2010. Retrieved May 8, 2016.
  2. ^ "The Great Fire of Saint John, New Brunswick, 1877". Retrieved 2008-12-17.
  3. ^ "Great Vancouver Fire Stories" (PDF). MOV. Museum of Vancouver. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
  4. ^ "The Great Fire of 1916" (PDF). Ontario Heritage Foundation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2005-05-26.
  5. ^ a b c d e f "List: Canada's most destructive wildfires". CTVNews. 2011-05-16. Retrieved 2022-04-18.
  6. ^ "Largest Brush and Forest Fires in Recorded History". 15 March 2018.
  7. ^ Murphy, Peter J., Cordy Tymstra, and Merle Massie. 2015. "The Great Fire of 1919: People and a Shared Firestorm in Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada." Forest History Today 2015(Spring/Fall):22–30.
  8. ^ Campbell, Gord. "The Mississagi Fire, 1948, A Historical Account". images.ourontario.ca. Retrieved 2022-04-18.
  9. ^ Manitoba Conservation & Climate. "Manitoba Wildfires : 1914 – 2020". Province of Manitoba. Retrieved 2022-04-18.
  10. ^ Hirsch, Kelvin G. (1991-04-01). "A chronological overview of the 1989 fire season in Manitoba". The Forestry Chronicle. 67 (4): 358–365. doi:10.5558/tfc67358-4. ISSN 0015-7546.
  11. ^ a b "The McLure Fire" (PDF). The University of Lethbridge. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
  12. ^ "Fire Review Summary for Okanagan Mountain Fire (K50628)" (PDF). BC Wildfire. Government of British Columbia. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
  13. ^ "Review of the 2009 Fire Season" (PDF). BC Wildfire. Ministry of Forests and Range. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
  14. ^ "Slave Lake fires 2nd costliest insured disaster". CTV News. 2011-07-05. Retrieved 2011-07-05.
  15. ^ "Slave Lake fire: How it happened". Postmedia Network Inc. Edmonton Journal. May 15, 2011. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
  16. ^ "Canadian Natural Resources Limited Provides a Further Update on the Impact of Alberta Forest Fires" (Press release). Marketwire. May 31, 2011. Retrieved June 2, 2015.
  17. ^ Snyder, Wayne (2022-07-19). "'Timmins 9' forest fire still haunts residents". TimminsToday.com. Retrieved 2023-05-27.
  18. ^ a b 2014 N.W.T. fire season report: What you need to know
  19. ^ Worst forest fires in 30 years cost N.W.T. $55M
  20. ^ "2 die in fiery crash on Highway 881 south of Fort McMurray". CBC/Radio-Canada. CBC News Edmonton. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
  21. ^ Weber, Bob (January 17, 2017). "Costs of Alberta wildfire reach $9.5 billion: Study". BNN Canada. Archived from the original on January 19, 2017. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
  22. ^ "Fort McMurray 2016 Wildfire - Economic Impact" (PDF). Statistics Canada. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 20, 2018. Retrieved July 20, 2016.
  23. ^ Romero, Diego (July 7, 2016). "Fort McMurray wildfires damage cost $3.85 billion". CTV. Edmonton. Archived from the original on July 8, 2016. Retrieved July 7, 2016.
  24. ^ Parsons, Paige (May 3, 2016). "Thousands flee from Fort McMurray wildfire in the largest fire evacuation in Alberta's history". Edmonton Journal. Postmedia Network. Retrieved May 3, 2016.
  25. ^ a b "Wildfire Season Summary - Province of British Columbia".
  26. ^ "B.C. wildfire status Wednesday: Arson suspected in 2 wildfires". Global News. Retrieved 2017-08-03.
  27. ^ "B.C. wildfires set record for total land burned over". Vancouver Sun. 2017-08-16. Retrieved 2017-08-20.
  28. ^ a b "Wildfires take tragic toll with death of firefighter, loss of homes in rural Alberta". Calgary Herald. 2017-10-19. Retrieved 2017-10-19.
  29. ^ "Alberta wildfires 2017: Current status of wildfires around the province". Global News. Retrieved 2017-10-19.
  30. ^ "British Columbia wildfire season now second worst in province's history". 26 August 2018.
  31. ^ "Current Statistics".
  32. ^ Derworiz, Colette (May 31, 2019). "10,000 people forced out, 16 homes destroyed by Alberta wildfires". Global News. The Canadian Press. Archived from the original on June 12, 2019. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
  33. ^ a b "Alberta Wildfire and Prescribed Burn Sitrep (October 18, 2019 @ 10:00hrs)". Alberta Wildfire. Government of Alberta. June 20, 2019. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
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