2023 North American Wildfires

Though we would like to, we cannot share information on every fire across the continent. Below, you will find some general information about the most significant fires of 2023.

Our coverage focused on fires that significantly impacted the surrounding areas and environment and affected residents, especially at-risk populations.

The National Preparedness Level – set by the National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group – was at Level 1 as of the end of December 2023 which means: “Minimal fire activity resulting in many available resources nationally.”

The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) statistics showed that in 2023, there were 56,580 wildfires burning 2.7 million acres nationally. These are both significantly lower than the 2022 statistics of 68,988 wildfires and 7.6 million acres burned. Interestingly, the reported number of wildfires was only slightly lower than the 10-year-average (61,407), whereas the acres burned was much smaller than the 10-year-average (7.2 million acres).

NIFC reported, “A total of 4,318 structures were reported destroyed by wildfires in 2023, including 3,060 residences, 1,228 minor structures, and 51 commercial/mixed residential structures.  In 2023, the majority of structures were destroyed in the Northern California Geographic Area, including the 2,308 residences destroyed in Maui.”

Editor’s note: In California, we usually focus on fires that exceed 50,000 acres. Three fires in 2023 – York, SRF Lightning Complex, Smith River Complex – exceeded 50,000 acres burned, causing four deaths and destroying 52 buildings.

Atmospheric rivers, heavy rains, flooding and increased snowpack reduced the severity of early fires in California in 2023.

There were three firefighter fatalities, one civilian fatality, 19 structures damaged and 52 structures reported destroyed in 2023. The three firefighters died on Aug. 6, 2023 after two helicopters collided while fighting a fire in Cabazon, California. A 71-year-old man was found deceased in the driveway of his home on Aug. 18, 2023 in the Head Fire.

You can support CDP’s response to the wildfires by donating to our California Wildfires Recovery Fund.

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Devastating wildfires burned in Hawaii (Hawaiian: Hawai’i) the week of Aug. 6, 2023. The largest of these fires – the Lahaina fire on Maui – was the worst natural hazard disaster in Hawaii’s history and the fifth-deadliest wildfires in the U.S. in recorded history and the first fire since 1918 to reach 100 deaths. The unique nature of the fires – a combination of drought, lightning and Hurricane Dora – was highlighted in this Reuters interactive story.

Maui suffered 101 confirmed fatalities and two people remain missing. Officials have experienced significant difficulties with identifying remains. The ages of the fatalities range from 7 to 97 years old, with two-thirds of them people aged 60 or older. According to the Maui police’s after action report, of the 100 fatalities included in the report one occurred in the ocean, three at the hospital, 15 inside vehicles, 39 outdoors but not in a vehicle and 42 inside buildings (many in homes).

Nearly all of Lahaina’s physical infrastructure was destroyed, including sacred spaces and historic structures dating back to the 1700s. The initial estimates of damage to rebuild the town of Lahaina alone – not including other impacted communities on Maui – total at least $5.5 billion. Per capita damage estimates total $33,000, and this figure continues to rise given the increasing cost of construction materials and skilled labor. Experts estimate recovery will take decades and the costs will far outweigh Maui County’s annual budget of $1 billion.

At least 2,207 buildings were damaged or destroyed; 86% of these were residential.

FEMA approved 7,024 applications and awarded nearly $43.41 million in assistance through the Individuals and Households Program (IHP) and $118.93 million in Public Assistance (PA) Categories A-B.

According to 2020 census data, Hawaii’s average household size was 2.95 people, and 8.5% of households were overcrowded. Kauai and Maui counties had the highest rates of overcrowding at just under 10%, and Maui’s population was approximately 164,000 at the time of the fire. Hawaii also has the largest percentage of multi-generational households – defined as households “containing three or more generations” – at 9.1%.

Based on these figures, the 7,024 approved applications for FEMA assistance account for nearly 21,000 people. Per anecdotal information from disaster recovery field staff, FEMA typically deems 10-12% of the total number of applications for assistance it receives as “eligible.” In theory, if FEMA received 58,000 applications for assistance and each application represented one household with an average size of 2.95 people, it is possible that every single resident on Maui was impacted by the wildfires. Recognizing the mental and emotional impact of living with such devastation, this is likely not far from the truth.

According to The Guardian, “The fires in Hawaii [were] unlike many of those burning in the western US. They tend to break out in large grasslands on the dry sides of the islands and are generally much smaller than mainland fires. Fires were rare in Hawaii and on other tropical islands before humans arrived and ecosystems evolved without them, which means that great environmental damage can occur when fires erupt. Fires remove vegetation. When a fire is followed by heavy rainfall, the rain can carry loose soil into the ocean, where it can smother coral reefs.”

You can support CDP’s response to the wildfires by donating to our Hawaii Wildfires Recovery Fund.

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In Louisiana, one of the wettest states in the U.S., 600 fires burned in August alone (78% of the state’s average annual total).

Governor John Bel Edwards stated via X (formerly Twitter), “Our state has never been this hot and dry, and we have never had this many fires.”

According to researchers at Louisiana State University, wildfire risk in the state is expected to increase 25% by 2050, with the magnitude of property damage poised to grow by more than 100%, fueled in major part by climate change.

In 2023, the Montana Free Press reported that “1,536 fires burned 116,314 acres in Montana this season, and 48% of those fires were human-caused…as of Sept. 15, the DNRC [Department of Natural Resources and Conservation] had spent $39.2 million on fire suppression in 2023, and the remaining fire fund balance totaled $109.3 million.”

The most expensive fire was the Colt Fire, which kicked off the season in July and ultimately burned 7,000 acres and cost $32 million to suppress. One of the biggest fires was the River Road East Fire which began on Aug. 18, 2023, near the Lolo National Forest. It destroyed 64 structures, including 16 homes, and burned more than 17,000 acres.

The Oregon Department of Forestry declared an end to the 2023 fire season with a total of 1,909 fires, burning a total of 190,507 acres, a relatively light season compared to previous years, particularly 2020 when multiple fires devastated over 1 million acres.

Nearly 900 fires burned 14,530 acres in Kentucky in 2023. Most notably, on Nov. 9, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear declared a rare wildfire-related state of emergency for active fires in Eastern Kentucky. The same area was devastated by severe flooding barely a year ago in July 2022 that killed 45 residents. [A documentary film by the Center for Rural Strategies, “East Kentucky Flood”, details the community impact of the flood.]

Disasters in rural communities, in many cases, do not garner significant media attention. As a result, and as evidenced by the July 2022 floods, rural residents do not have access to necessary resources such as community-specific weather forecasts and broadband internet access, making preparedness and recovery efforts even more difficult.

Toward the end of 2023, multiple states in the southern U.S. have experienced wildfires amid dry conditions brought on by prolonged drought.

Multiple fires in Virginia prompted Governor Glenn Youngkin to declare a state of emergency on Nov. 7 that was effective for 30 days. The Matts Creek wildfire burned in the James River Face Wilderness, and smoke from that blaze has became a health issue for the communities across the region.

Two-thirds of Louisiana faced exceptional drought conditions in 2023, the highest recorded by the Drought Monitor in 23 years. The drought plus extreme temperature led to several large wildfires, something unusual for the state to contend with.

On June 27, Canada surpassed the record set in 1989 for the total area burned in one wildfire season. Record heat affected even the typically cooler northern territories. Firefighters from several countries, including United States, Australia, New Zealand, France, South Africa and Costa Rica, helped Canada battle fires in 2023.

According to the European Union’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, Canada’s wildfires released 360 million tons (327 million metric tons) of carbon into the atmosphere as of Aug. 23, 2023. Of that, just over 106 million tons (97 metric tons) came from the Northwest Territories alone, which is 277 times more than humans caused in 2021.

As of Dec. 7, 2023,  total carbon emissions eclipse 2.2 billion tons, nearly triple the average annual carbon emissions of the entire country.

As of Dec. 7, 2023, the CIFFC has reported 6,679 fires and 45.7 million acres burned. CIFFC statistics showed 258 active fires, with 29 out of control, 74 being held and 155 under control. The amount that burned in 2023 was about 5% of Canada’s forests. Annually, the world loses 17.3 million acres to deforestation, so Canada’s fires alone account for more than double that typical loss.

Six people died in 2023. Two of the deaths were civilians: a 9-year-old boy in British Columbia whose asthma was exacerbated by the smoke and a hospitalized patient who died during the Yellowknife evacuation. The hospital said his death was “expected.” Four of the fatalities were among people engaged in firefighting activities.

On July 13, 2023, 19-year-old nursing student Devyn Gale was trapped under a tree while fighting a wildland fire in British Columbia. Adam Yeadon, a 25-year-old firefighter in the Northwest Territories, was killed fighting a small fire near Fort Liard. On July 20, a 41-year-old helicopter pilot delivering water to the fire died after his helicopter collided with the ground. On July 28, a 25-year-old firefighter from Ontario died in northern British Columbia while fighting the largest fire in the province’s history.

Over the course of the fires, nearly 200,000 people were evacuated for some length of time.

In Alberta, there were more than 1,124 fires in 2023.

In the Oct. 30, “Wildfires of Note” from the Government of Alberta, there were no wildfires of note, meaning a wildfire that is highly visible or poses a potential threat to public safety. This was the last date this document was updated in 2023.

British Columbia saw 2,253 fires in 2023. Wildfires burned a record amount of land (7.03 million acres) in the province, more than doubling the previous record set in 2018 (3.35 million acres).

The largest-ever fire in British Columbia, the Donnie Creek Blaze, burned an area larger than Prince Edward Island. The fire burned on the traditional territory of the Blueberry River, Prophet River and Doig River First Nations and has burned traplines, important ceremonial landmarks, massive amounts of timber, blueberries and other berries, and habitat for deer, bison and moose. This will cause significant disruptions to Indigenous communities and the lumber and milling industries. The fire burned about 1.4 million acres or 2,200 square miles, and is still burning. It may temper over the winter and then reemerge in the spring.

In Canada’s far north, the last update was Oct. 18, at which time there were 91 active fires and 303 for the full year.

NWT has a population of only 45,000 people. Two-thirds of this northern, near-Arctic territory was displaced by wildfires at least once during the summer, including the territory’s capital city, Yellowknife, home to 20,000 people. All evacuees except those from Enterprise have been allowed to return home. Almost 100 million acres have burned in total.

As of Dec. 7, 2023, the province had reported 564 fires. The 10-year average to date in Quebec is 438.

Over 13 million acres of land burned, compared to the 10-year average of 39,051 acres.