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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.

Article Location Year Deaths Damage Buildings Area in ha/a Notes
1825 Miramichi fire Northern 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 (Dominion of Newfoundland) 1846 3 £888,356 600 hectares (1,500 acres)
Great Fire of 1852 Montreal (United Province of Canada) 1852 0 Nearly half of city's housing destroyed
Saguenay Fire Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec 1870 7 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) Nearly 1/3 of the population lost everything.
Great Fire of 1892 St. John's, Newfoundland, (Dominion of Newfoundland) 1892 $13,000,000
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 1886 0 $103,200
1900 Hull–Ottawa fire Hull, Quebec 1900 7 $956,962.77
Great Toronto Fire Toronto 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] 200,000 hectares (490,000 acres)
Great Fire of 1919 Saskatchewan and Alberta 1919 11[5] 2,000,000 hectares (4,900,000 acres)
Great Fire of 1922 Timiskaming District, Ontario 1922 43 $2,000,000 168,000 hectares (420,000 acres)
Chinchaga fire Northern British Columbia and Alberta 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
McLure fire North Thompson River, British Columbia 2003 0 $31.9 Million[6] 81 26,420 hectares (65,300 acres) 3,800 people evacuated[6]
Okanagan Mountain Park Fire Central Okanagan, British Columbia 2003 0 $33.8 Million[7] 239 25,912 hectares (64,030 acres)
West Kelowna wildfires West Kelowna, British Columbia 2009 0 $403 million[8] 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 2011 1 (helicopter crash) CAD $750 million[9] 433 4,700 hectares (12,000 acres) One-third of town destroyed.[10]
Richardson Fire Alberta 2011 0 $350 to $450 million[11] 700,000 hectares (1,700,000 acres) largest fire in Alberta since the 1950 Chinchaga fire.
2014 Northwest Territories fires Northwest Territories 2014 0 $56.1 million[12] 3,400,000 ha (8,400,000 acres)[12] Said to have been the largest wildfires in 30 years in the Northwest Territories[13] Note: Damage is the cost of fire fighting
2016 Fort McMurray wildfire Alberta, Saskatchewan 2016 2
(indirect)[14]		 $9.9 billion (direct and indirect costs)[15][16][17] 3,244 589,552 hectares (1,456,810 acres) Largest wildfire evacuation in Alberta's history.[18] 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, British Columbia, Alberta 2017 0 $586 million [19] 305+[20] 1,216,053 hectares (3,004,930 acres)[21] Estimated 65,000 [19] evacuated. Largest single wildfire in BC Wildfire history
2017 Alberta fires Alberta, Saskatchewan 2017 1[22] 14+[22] Fires possibly caused by power lines downed in a storm.[23]
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 2018 50+ [24] 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.[25]
2019 Alberta wildfires Northwestern and Central Alberta 2019 16[26] 883,414 hectares (2,182,960 acres)[27] Both lightning and human activity have been contributed to the cause, as well several are under investigation.[27] (*as of October 18, 2019)
Lytton wildfire Lytton, British Columbia 2021 Fire started after a record breaking heatwave

See also

References

  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. ^ Heritage Foundation of Canada
  5. ^ https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/largest-brush-and-forest-fires-in-recorded-history.html
  6. ^ a b "The McLure Fire" (PDF). The University of Lethbridge. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
  7. ^ "Fire Review Summary for Okanagan Mountain Fire (K50628)" (PDF). BC Wildfire. Government of British Columbia. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
  8. ^ "Review of the 2009 Fire Season" (PDF). BC Wildfire. Ministry of Forests and Range. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
  9. ^ "Slave Lake fires 2nd costliest insured disaster". CTV News. 2011-07-05. Retrieved 2011-07-05.
  10. ^ "Slave Lake fire: How it happened". Postmedia Network Inc. Edmonton Journal. May 15, 2011. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
  11. ^ "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.
  12. ^ a b 2014 N.W.T. fire season report: What you need to know
  13. ^ Worst forest fires in 30 years cost N.W.T. $55M
  14. ^ "2 die in fiery crash on Highway 881 south of Fort McMurray". CBC/Radio-Canada. CBC News Edmonton. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
  15. ^ 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.
  16. ^ "Fort McMurray 2016 Wildfire - Economic Impact" (PDF). Statistics Canada. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 20, 2018. Retrieved July 20, 2016.
  17. ^ 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.
  18. ^ 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.
  19. ^ a b https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/safety/wildfire-status/about-bcws/wildfire-history/wildfire-season-summary
  20. ^ "B.C. wildfire status Wednesday: Arson suspected in 2 wildfires". Global News. Retrieved 2017-08-03.
  21. ^ "B.C. wildfires set record for total land burned over". Vancouver Sun. 2017-08-16. Retrieved 2017-08-20.
  22. ^ 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.
  23. ^ "Alberta wildfires 2017: Current status of wildfires around the province". Global News. Retrieved 2017-10-19.
  24. ^ https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/british-columbia-wildfire-season-now-second-worst-in-province-s-history-1.4068551
  25. ^ http://bcfireinfo.for.gov.bc.ca/hprScripts/WildfireNews/Statistics.asp
  26. ^ 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.
  27. ^ 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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