United States Wildfire Archive
Historical wildfire statistics for every state: yearly trends, the largest fires on record, and human impact, compiled from official NIFC records and ICS-209-PLUS incident reports.
United States wildfire statistics
Filter by year or time range; every count and chart below updates to match.
Acres burned by year
Fires recorded by year
Damages by year
ICS-209 reports, 2014–2020Damages and deaths come from the federal ICS-209-PLUS research dataset, which is published through 2020. Later years will appear when the dataset is updated; fire and acreage figures above are current. Real totals run higher than reported.
Deaths by year
ICS-209 reports, 2014–2020Counted only where a federal ICS-209 incident report exists; the dataset currently ends in 2020.
Top states by acres burned
2014–2026When is fire season in the United States?
Average acres burned in each calendar month, 2014–2025. Fires are counted in the month they were discovered.
July and August account for 50% of the acreage burned in the United States in an average year, based on NIFC interagency records.
Key facts: wildfires in the United States
The United States has recorded 388,138 wildfires since 2014, burning about 94.9M acres: an average of 30K fires and 7.3M acres per year.
The worst fire year on record in this dataset is 2015, when roughly 12.2M acres burned.
The largest single fire on record here is the Taylor Complex fire (2004) in Alaska, at 1,305,592 acres.
The deadliest fire in the dataset is the Camp fire (2018) in California, with 85 deaths.
California records the most fires of any state, averaging 8,206 per year since 2014.
Impact reports filed for the largest fires document 514 deaths, 107K structures destroyed, and over $30.3 billion in damages since 1999. True totals run higher because smaller fires are not included.
State explorer
Total recorded fires per region. Tap any region for its live map and full history.
Largest fires on record
The biggest fires we track for each state. Search by name, filter by region or decade, and sort by size, date, deaths, or cost.
747 fires match
- Taylor Complex2004Alaska · 1,305,592 acres9 structures$16M
- Smokehouse Creek2024Texas · 1,054,153 acres
- August Complex2020California · 1,032,648 acres1 death446 structures$116M
- Dixie2021California · 963,309 acres
- East Amarillo Complex2006Texas · 907,245 acres11 deaths89 structures
- NW Oklahoma Complex2017Oklahoma · 779,292 acres2 deaths151 structures$3M
- Murphy Complex2007Idaho · 652,016 acres3 structures$13M
- Morrill2026Nebraska · 642,029 acres
- Railbelt Complex2009Alaska · 631,194 acres$19M
- Eagle Complex2004Alaska · 614,974 acres2 structures$4M
- Big Grass2026Oregon · 578,637 acres
- Long Draw2012Oregon · 557,628 acres$4M
- Wallow2011Arizona · 538,049 acres72 structures$109M
- Boundary Fire2004Alaska · 537,098 acres35 structures$18M
- Chalkyitsik Complex2019Alaska · 505,273 acres2 structures$7M
- Biscuit (formerly Florence)2002Oregon · 499,570 acres13 structures$153M
- Tanana Area Fires2015Alaska · 498,043 acres$14M
- Rodeo/Chediski Complex2002Arizona · 468,638 acres31 structures$49M
- Holloway2012Nevada · 460,850 acres3 structures$9M
- Mendocino Complex2018California · 459,123 acres1 death280 structures$201M
- Central Complex2004Alaska · 451,162 acres15 structures$10M
- Crazy Mountain Complex2009Alaska · 447,150 acres$7M
- Martin2018Nevada · 435,569 acres1 structure$9M
- Park2024California · 429,603 acres
- Ruby Area Fires2015Alaska · 421,613 acres3 structures$3M
Data sources
NIFC WFIGS incident records
Yearly fire counts and acreage per state from the National Interagency Fire Center’s wildland fire incident locations dataset, 2014 to present.
ICS-209-PLUS impact reports
Deaths, structures destroyed, and cost estimates come from the ICS-209-PLUS research dataset, built from official incident status summaries filed between 1999 and 2020. Fires after 2020 may not have impact figures yet.
Canada archive