List of fires in Canada
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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
| Article | Location | Province | Date | Deaths | Damage | Buildings | Area in ha/a | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1825 Miramichi fire | Northern New Brunswick |  New Brunswick | Oct 1825 | 160 to 300 | 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 hectares (2,500,000 to 4,900,000 acres) | A series of wildfires.[1] | ||
| Fire in Quebec City | Quebec City | Province of Canada (Quebec) | May 1845 | 20 | $1 million | 100+ | [2] | |
| Fire in Quebec City | Quebec City | Province of Canada (Quebec) | Jun 1845 | 40 | $1.5 million | 1,200 | [2] | |
| Great Fire of 1846 | St. John's | Colony of Newfoundland | Jun 1846 | 3 | £888,356 | 600 hectares (1,500 acres) | ||
| Fire in Toronto | Toronto | Province of Canada (Upper Canada) | Apr 1849 | $500,000 | [2] | |||
| Fire in Montreal | Montreal | Province of Canada (Quebec) | Jun 1850 | 0 | $500,000 | 100 | [2] | |
| Great Fire of 1852 | Montreal | Province of Canada (Quebec) | Jul 1852 | 0 | $5 million | 1,200[2] | Nearly half of city's housing destroyed. | |
| Great Fire of Quebec City | Quebec City | Province of Canada (Quebec) | Oct 1866 | $3 million | 2,500 | [2] | ||
| Saguenay Fire | Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec | Quebec | May 1870 | 7 | 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) | Nearly 1/3 of the population lost everything. | ||
| Fire in Quebec City | Quebec City | Quebec | May 1876 | $800,000 | 700 | [2] | ||
| Fire in Saint-Jean | Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu | Quebec | Jun 1876 | $2.5 million | [2] | |||
| Fire in Saint-Hyacinthe | Saint-Hyacinthe | Quebec | Sep 1876 | $1.25 million | 583 | [2] | ||
| Great Fire of Saint John | Saint John |  New Brunswick | Jun 1877 | 19 | $28 million | 1,612 | [3] | |
| Fire in Hamilton | Hamilton | Ontario | Aug 1879 | $500,000 | [2] | |||
| Fire in Quebec City | Quebec City | Quebec | Jun 1881 | $2 million | 800 | [2] | ||
| Fire in Toronto | Toronto | Ontario | Jan 1885 | $700,000 | [2] | |||
| Great Vancouver Fire | Vancouver | British Columbia | Jun 1886 | 24 to 28[4] | $1.3 million | |||
| Calgary Fire of 1886 | Calgary | North-West Territories (now Alberta) | Nov 1886 | 0 | $103,200 | |||
| Great Fire of 1892 | St. John's |  Colony of Newfoundland | Jul 1892 | $13 million | ||||
| Simpson's fire in Toronto | Toronto | Ontario | Jan 1895 | $600,000 | [2] | |||
| Fire in Windsor | Windsor |  Nova Scotia | Oct 1897 | $4 million | Most of the town destroyed.[2] | |||
| Fire in New Westminster | New Westminster | British Columbia | Sep 1898 | $2 million | [2] | |||
| Warehouse fire in Montreal | Montreal | Quebec | Dec 1898 | $8 million | [2] | |||
| Warehouse fire in Montreal | Montreal | Quebec | Jan 1900 | $2.5 million | [2] | |||
| 1900 Hull–Ottawa fire | Hull | Quebec | Apr 1900 | 7 | $7.5 million | Destroyed 2/3 of Hull.[2] | ||
| Fire in Sydney | Sydney | Nova Scotia | Oct 1901 | $500,000 | 60+ | [2] | ||
| Fire in Ottawa | Ottawa | Ontario | May 1903 | $500,000 | 300+ | [2] | ||
| Fire in Saint-Hyacinthe | Saint-Hyacinthe | Quebec | May 1903 | $500,000 | 400+ | [2] | ||
| Great Toronto Fire | Toronto | Ontario | Apr 1904 | $13 million | [2] | |||
| Fire in Trois-Rivières | Trois-Rivières | Quebec | Jun 1908 | $2 million | [2] | |||
| Fire in Fernie | Fernie | British Columbia | Aug 1908 | $4 million | Most of the town was destroyed.[2] | |||
| Great Porcupine Fire | Timmins | Ontario | Jul 1911 | 73 to 200 | 199,915 hectares (494,000 acres) | |||
| Matheson Fire | Black River-Matheson | Ontario | Jul 1916 | 223[5] to 244[6] | 49 townships[6] | 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.[6] | |
| Great Fire of 1919 | Saskatchewan and eastern Alberta |  Alberta Saskatchewan | May 1919 | 11[7] | 2,000,000 hectares (4,900,000 acres) | The first major fire in the wildland–urban interface of the Prairie Provinces.[8] | ||
| Great Fire of 1922 | Timiskaming District | Ontario | Oct 1922 | 43 | $2 million | 168,000 hectares (420,000 acres) | ||
| Knights of Columbus Hostel fire | St. John's |  Dominion of Newfoundland | Dec 1942 | 99 | [9] | |||
| Mississagi Fire of 1948 | Mississagi River | Ontario | May– Jul 1948 | 1[10] | 280,000 hectares (690,000 acres) | The fire destroyed land over a two-month period between Chapleau and Thessalon.[6] | ||
| Chinchaga fire | Northern British Columbia and Alberta |  Alberta British Columbia | Jun– Oct 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. | ||
| Notre-Dame-du-Lac seniors' home fire | Notre-Dame-du-Lac |  Quebec | Dec 1969 | 40 | [11] | |||
| Opémiska Community Hall fire | Chapais | Quebec | Jan 1980 | 48 | [12] | |||
| Manitoba wildfires | Manitoba |  Manitoba | May, Jul– Aug 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.[6][13][14] | ||
| Hagersville Tire Fire | Hagersville, Ontario |  Ontario | Feb 1990 | 0 | 0 | Unknown | 7.3 hectares (18 acres) | Significant ecological damage caused by the melting of 12-14 million tires over 17 days. |
| 2001 Chisholm Wildfire | Chisholm | Alberta | May 2001 | 60+ | 116,000 hectares (290,000 acres) | [6] | ||
| McLure fire | North Thompson River |  British Columbia | Jul– Aug 2003 | 0 | $31.9 million[15] | 81 | 26,420 hectares (65,300 acres) | 3,800 people evacuated[15] |
| Okanagan Mountain Park Fire | Central Okanagan | British Columbia | Aug 2003 | 0 | $33.8 Million[16] | 239 | 25,912 hectares (64,030 acres) | |
| West Kelowna wildfires | West Kelowna | British Columbia | Jul 2009 | 0 | $403 million[17] | 4 | 9,877 hectares (24,410 acres) | Three separate wildfires. |
| May 2010 Quebec wildfires | La Tuque | Quebec | May 2010 | 0 | 90,000 hectares (220,000 acres) | |||
| 2011 Slave Lake Wildfire | Slave Lake | Alberta | May 2011 | 1 (helicopter crash) | $750 million[18] | 433 | 4,700 hectares (12,000 acres) | One-third of town destroyed.[19] |
| Richardson Fire | Richardson Backcountry | Alberta | May–Sep 2011 | 0 | $350 to $450 million[20] | 700,000 hectares (1,700,000 acres) | largest fire in Alberta since the 1950 Chinchaga fire. | |
| Timmins Fire 9 | Timmins | Ontario | May–Nov 2012 | 0 | 39,540 hectares (97,700 acres)[21] | 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. | ||
| L'Isle-Verte nursing home fire | L'Isle-Verte | Quebec | Dec 2014 | 32 | [22] | |||
| 2014 Northwest Territories fires | Northwest Territories |  Northwest Territories | summer 2014 | 0 | $56.1 million[23] | 3,400,000 ha (8,400,000 acres)[23] | Said to have been the largest wildfires in 30 years in the Northwest Territories[24] Note: Damage is the cost of fire fighting. | |
| 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire | Northern Alberta (incl. Fort McMurray) and Saskatchewan | Alberta Saskatchewan | May– Jul 2016 | 2 (indirect)[25] | $9.9 billion (direct and indirect costs)[26][27][28] | 3,244 | 589,552 hectares (1,456,810 acres) | Largest wildfire evacuation in Alberta's history.[29] Costliest disaster in Canadian history, cost of $3.58 billion in July, estimate up to $9 billion. |
| 2017 British Columbia wildfires | Central and South Interior, and Alberta | Alberta British Columbia | Jul– Sep 2017 | 0 | $586 million[30] | 305+[31] | 1,216,053 hectares (3,004,930 acres)[32] | Estimated 65,000 [30] evacuated. Largest single wildfire in BC Wildfire history. |
| 2017 Alberta fires | Alberta, Saskatchewan | Alberta Saskatchewan | summer 2017 | 1[33] | 14+[33] | Fires possibly caused by power lines downed in a storm.[34] | ||
| North Bay 69 | Temagami | Ontario | Jul– Aug 2018 | 0 | 221 hectares (550 acres) | |||
| 2018 Parry Sound forest fire | Parry Sound District | Ontario | Jul– Oct 2018 | 0 | 11,362.5 hectares (28,077 acres) | |||
| 2018 British Columbia wildfires | British Columbia | British Columbia | summer 2018 | 50+ [35] | 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.[36] | ||
| 2019 Alberta wildfires | Northwestern and Central Alberta | Alberta | Mar–Dec 2019 | 16[37] | 883,414 hectares (2,182,960 acres)[38] | Both lightning and human activity have been contributed to the cause, as well several are under investigation.[38] (*as of 18 Oct, 2019) | ||
| Lytton wildfire | Lytton | British Columbia | Jun 2021 | 2 | $78 million | Fire started after a record breaking heatwave. | ||
| 2023 Nova Scotia wildfires | Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | summer 2023 | 0 | 250+ | 24,128 hectares (59,620 acres) | 18,000 evacuated. | |
| 2023 Alberta wildfires | Alberta | Alberta | 2023 | 1,220,000 hectares (3,000,000 acres) | Wisconsin had the worst air quality of the year. It was so bad that even the Madison Metropolitan School District in Madison cancelled summer school on June 28th. As well, many local outdoor swimming pools were closed. | |||
| 2024 Canada wildfires | Alberta and British Columbia | Alberta British Columbia |
2024 | Thousands evacuated. |