The best of EcoWatch right in your inbox. Sign up for our email newsletter!

Founded in 2005 as an Ohio-based environmental newspaper, EcoWatch is a digital platform dedicated to publishing quality, science-based content on environmental issues, causes, and solutions.

Wildfires, also commonly called forest fires or bushfires, are unplanned and uncontrolled fires burning in a vegetated landscape, such as a forest or grasslands. Many wildfires are sparked by human activity, such as campfires, or natural causes, like lightning. Dry conditions and prolonged droughts, which are becoming more frequent with climate change, exacerbate the risks of wildfires. Droughts, high winds, and other extreme weather are also making wildfires more common and more powerful, with larger blazes that burn for longer and expand across more land.

From 1998 to 2017, over 2,400 human deaths were attributed to both wildfires and volcanoes. Even when people can evacuate an affected area, they may lose their homes or businesses to the fires. Wildfires can also kill wildlife in the habitats that catch fire. Further, wildfires feed back into a loop, worsening climate change by releasing more carbon dioxide and fine particulate matter into the air.

In order to burn, a spark requires fuel, heat and oxygen to become a wildfire. The fuel is the trees, grasses or other organic material of a landscape. The oxygen is available in the atmosphere, especially when there are high winds. The third component, heat, can come from a few different sources: fire or sparks from humans, heat from a lightning bolt or a volcanic eruption.

The No. 1 cause of wildfires is human activity. Even in some cases where nature causes an ignition, drought and other conditions related to human-caused climate change play a part. Unattended campfires and campfires set up in dry landscapes, burning of trash and other debris, malfunctions with powerlines and other equipment, arson, and even discarded cigarettes can also lead to wildfires.

Natural causes make up only about 10% to 15% of wildfires, but they can still play an important role in starting these fires. Lightning is one of the primary natural causes of wildfires. Lightning currents with less voltage that last longer are called hot lightning. The prolonged hot lightning has longer contact with the landscape, possibly sparking a fire.

Volcanic eruptions can also lead to another natural disaster: wildfires. Hot lava that flows away from the volcano onto dry brush or into forested areas can trigger a wildfire if other conditions are right.

Wildfires are a natural phenomenon that would occur even without added pressures from human activity and climate change. But with the climate crisis, environmental conditions necessary to fuel wildfires have become more frequent. As such, wildfires are becoming more frequent around the world, burning for longer periods of time and expanding over greater swaths of land. 

The western U.S. experiences many wildfires every year, but these fires are also becoming more common in other parts of the country. In 2020 alone, The Climate Reality Project reported that wildfires in California, Oregon and Washington burned over 4 million acres. For 2021, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shared that 7,139,713 acres burned from a total of 58,733 fires. Here are the biggest fires of 2021 per state.

California has more wildfires than any other state in the U.S., and it saw several large fires in 2021. Cal Fire reported 8,835 incidents in 2021 and 2,568,948 estimated acres burned. The biggest fires of the year include: 

While fire season is just beginning for 2022, the northern part of the state is already seeing a massive fire, the McKinney Fire, which has already burned over 52,000 acres at the time of writing.

Since 2001, the 20 biggest wildfires in Colorado’s history have happened, with the three largest in state history occurring in 2020 alone. There have already been several large fires in Colorado for 2022. Without enough snowfall earlier in the year, the state is struggling with dry conditions that could become a new normal.

The Marshall Fire started in late December 2021, and has since been deemed the most destructive in Colorado’s history. This fire destroyed nearly 1,100 homes and killed two people.

Fire season is already off to a brutal start in Arizona, with the following fires burning just this summer: 

In Texas, most of the state has spent summer 2022 under drought conditions and burn bans due to increased fire risks, and there are already some major blazes occurring this year.

Oregon has seen nearly 1,000 acres burn in 2022 so far. In 2021, the state saw a total of 77 fires that burned 1,053,936 acres, a major increase compared to the 52,543 acres burned in 37 fires in 2020. Dry underbrush, timber, logging, dry conditions and high winds all contribute to major blazes in Oregon.

While there are certainly wildfire hotspots in the U.S., increasing temperatures and extended droughts are creating perfect wildfire conditions around the country. For instance, in April 2022, in New Mexico, two prescribed wildfires turned into uncontrolled blazes, burning over 341,000 acres and becoming the largest wildfire in state history.

In 2022, Alaska, Idaho, Arizona and Nevada have already experienced, and are still experiencing, large fires. PBS has reported there are already massive wildfires — including the Lime Complex Fire that has burned over 865,620 acres — some of which are in traditionally “fireproof” parts of Alaska, and peak fire season has yet to arrive.

Climate change brings increasing temperatures and drier conditions that can fuel wildfires around the world. Researchers expect significant increases in wildfire risks in the U.S., South America, central Asia, southern Europe, southern Africa and Australia from 2070 to 2100.

Even in the UK, typically considered a colder locale, experts are telling citizens to expect more wildfires in the near future as extreme heatwaves grip the nation. 

The expected increase in wildfires will bring with it more emissions and more forest loss, according to a recent study. As fire seasons become longer and more severe, forest loss due to wildfires is steadily increasing, with the highest losses occurring in boreal forests, which span Canada, China, Finland, Japan, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the U.S. 

You can track ongoing fires through NASA’s Global Fire Tracking tool.

Wildfires have far-reaching impacts on every living thing, from plants and animals to humans. Aside from destroying habitats and human homes and putting public health at risk, these fires can also come with major pricetags that affect local economies.

Fires have a direct impact on the land they burn. Fast-moving blazes fueled by timber or dry, tall grasses and high winds can quickly burn through wildlife habitats, leaving little to no time for animals to escape. While fires are natural and even essential for biodiversity in some forested regions, the increasing frequency and severity of these events is detrimental to the environment.

Fires burn through tall grasses, forests and other dry landscapes, burning through habitats and leaving thousands or even millions of different animals displaced. Plant-eating animals can also be left short on food, while those farther up the food chain may struggle to hunt as their usual prey have been displaced.

As fires burn across landscapes, they can kill wildlife. The most notable example of this happened in Australia in 2019 and 2020, when massive bushfires killed or displaced an estimated 3 billion animals. More than 60,000 koalas were killed in the fires, with more severely burned. Now, the species has officially been listed as endangered.

Wildfires contribute significantly to air pollution. For those in affected areas, the plumes of smoke and blood-red skies are clear indicators of pollutants in the atmosphere. Wildfires emit particulate matter, carbon monoxide, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and water vapor. Fires can also release 1.76 billion metric tons of carbon emissions a year globally, which can further exacerbate climate change while also threatening the health of humans and wildlife.

As of 2020, wildfires cause about 70 deaths per year, although as many as 266 people died from wildfires in 1997. Wildfires can also cause burns and other injuries and long-lasting impacts, like worsening the air quality for communities or contaminating local watersheds.

Smoke from wildfires releases PM2.5, fine particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less, that worsens air quality. Further, humans can inhale these fine particles, which can then go into the lungs or bloodstream leading to lung and heart health concerns. The particles in wildfire smoke can also cause irritation and damage to the eyes, nose and throat, leading to respiratory complications.

Unfortunately, inhalation of particulate matter can be deadly. A global study from 2021 found that an average of about 33,510 deaths per year could be attributed to acute wildfire-related PM 2.5 exposure. 

Experiencing a natural disaster, like a wildfire, can have serious impacts on mental health. These events can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, especially when families lose loved ones and/or their homes due to fires.

Where there’s smoke, there’s ash. Ash left behind from wildfires can impact local water supplies and communities’ drinking water. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported that 80% of fresh water resources in the U.S. originate on forested land. 

After a forest fire, ash and other debris can become runoff into local waterways, including lakes, reservoirs and wetlands. In Colorado alone, more than $26 million was spent on water treatments and related issues after two major wildfires.

Wildfires have detrimental impacts on the environment, from threatening public health to destroying habitats and contributing to biodiversity loss. But these fires have a financial impact to local economies, too.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, annual wildfires in the U.S. create an economic burden of an estimated $71.1 billion to $347.8 billion, with losses accounting for around $63.5 billion to $285 billion and costs accounting for $7.6 billion to $62.8 billion. In California, the most wildfire-prone state in the country, economic damages in 2018 alone were around $148.5 billion.

In the U.S. and abroad, countries must spend money on firefighting resources to contain wildfires and account for losses from the fires. But wildfires can have indirect economic impacts as well. Burned areas can affect tourism numbers, lower real estate values, and require money for rehabilitation and restoration.

Although Smokey the Bear says, “Only you can prevent wildfires,” it’s a collective effort that requires everyday people, governments, and corporations to work together to curb climate change and reduce the risk of fires.

The ultimate way to prevent wildfires is to curb climate change that worsens the conditions that fuel more frequent and destructive blazes. But aside from that, the goal is to reduce human-caused wildfires, since this phenomenon is natural and even essential for forests.

An alarming new report finds that very few states in the U.S. require homeowners to invest in fireproofing, despite it being a relatively low-cost and important action to take to protect structures in a wildfire. Fireproofing a home can reduce the likelihood a wildfire destroys it by 40%.

And whether or not you own a home, you should know how to prepare for a wildfire event to keep yourself safe. In the event of a wildfire, you may need to evacuate and/or live without power for several days.

Wildfires are worsening in many countries globally, including the U.S., and are expected to become more of an issue in places they weren’t previously, like in the UK. Australia is particularly vulnerable to increasing blazes, as are regions of boreal forests.

As a part of nature, wildfires do play an essential part in promoting biodiversity, but only when they occur at a natural rate. Human activity and climate change are spurring more intense and more frequent fires that contribute more emissions, feeding into a loop that worsens climate change. 

Air pollutants from wildfires worsen air quality, putting the health of wildlife and humans at risk and costing countries billions of dollars per year to contain the blazes and pay for damages. Wildfires can also kill off vulnerable wildlife, as is the case for endangered koalas in Australia that recently lost tens of thousands from the already low population, and injure and/or displace thousands more animals.

Ultimately, the goal is not to end wildfires. They are an essential part of many ecosystems, but the fact that they are getting bigger and are happening more frequently does more harm than good. Thankfully, it’s not too late to minimize the number of wildfires.

We can reduce the number of human-made wildfires by staying aware of ongoing weather conditions. When conditions are dry, hot, and windy, avoid any activities that could create a spark or spread smoke and flames. Even driving your car or mowing the lawn can start a fire, so be mindful during high fire risk conditions.

Human-caused or not, wildfires can be destructive. If you live in an area prone to fires, make sure you have a safety plan in place, with supplies ready to go if you need to evacuate or are left without power for long periods of time.

Wildfires are another part of our world, and they are only expected to worsen as the world grows hotter. While we can mitigate personal risks, working collectively with governments and corporations to slow climate change is the best way to minimize wildfire risks worldwide.

By signing up, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy & to receive electronic communications from EcoWatch Media Group, which may include marketing promotions, advertisements and sponsored content.

By signing up, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy & to receive electronic communications from EcoWatch Media Group, which may include marketing promotions, advertisements and sponsored content.

The best of EcoWatch right in your inbox. Sign up for our email newsletter!

Experts for a healthier planet and life.