List of fires in Canada

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 at 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.

See also

• List of Canadian disasters by death toll
• List of fires in British Columbia
• List of fires
  • List of wildfires
• List of town and city fires