Sadly, forest fires have never been far from the headlines in the last few years. As the impact of climate change takes its toll and areas see record-breaking high temperatures and drought, violent blazes have flared up all over the world, from the Amazon rainforest to southern France. We take a look at some of the most destructive fires the planet has ever seen, ranging from the late 1800s to modern-day infernos, as well as why they happen.

Forest fires can start in any number of ways and the cause could be natural or human, or a little of both – in fact, controlled burns are actually sometimes used as a tool for forest management. In short, the fires frequenting the media in recent years have a range of different root causes. In warmer parts of the world – think Australia or California (pictured) – drought and hot weather means vegetation dries out and essentially becomes the perfect fuel for fire.

The initial spark could be caused by anything from natural lightning to a felled power line to a carelessly lit campfire – generally exacerbated by strong winds and continued scorching temperatures, the fire can then spread out of control. Of course, arson is also sometimes a factor, as is the slash-and-burn techniques employed by some farmers, especially in places such as the Amazon (pictured). The latter involves clearing land for agriculture by cutting and burning vegetation and trees.

According to Tom Eames, a researcher and PhD candidate for Free University Amsterdam's fire research group, the number of fires in some parts of the world – California and Australia, for example – has increased over the decades. The levels in California are actually around eight times what they were in the 1970s. He told loveEXPLORING: “That is certainly attributable, at least in part, to global warming – warmer weather means these areas dry out faster, and so are susceptible to fire for longer periods in the year.”

Eames says that fires in colder parts of the world – boreal regions of Russia, Canada and Alaska, for example – are on the rise too. Tom explained: “The Arctic is warming faster than the global average, and as warmer temperatures push further north, thunderstorms push further north too." This leads to "an overall increase in lightning ignitions in the region", as well as lightning ignitions in places that hadn't really been affected previously. He added that, generally, the further north you go, natural ignitions (ie lightning) become much more common than human ignitions.

North America has been ravaged by forest fires throughout the centuries and more recently. Still to date, though, America’s deadliest fire remains the Peshtigo Fire of 1871. What began as a small fire in the brush was worsened by a strong cold front – the resulting fire tore through northeastern Wisconsin, destroying around 1.2 million acres and killing more than 1,200 people in October 1871.

Some four decades later another fire devastated the States. The Great Fire of 1910 is one of the largest fires in US history, gutting three million acres in the northwestern states of Idaho and Montana. To this day, the cause remains unknown, but the fire raged on for days, suffocating great swathes of North America in a cloud of smoke. It was finally quelled by the rain, but it had tragically already killed 87 people, most of whom were firefighters. This photo shows the devastation of a white pine forest in Idaho. 

A particularly dry summer and early autumn, coupled with sparks from a passing train near Sturgeon Lake, led to the catastrophic Cloquet Fire. The fire began on 12 October 1918 then, whipped up by high winds, it spread eastward swallowing some 38 towns and villages, destroying 4,000 homes and killing more than 450 people. It remains the worst natural disaster in the state of Minnesota – this photo shows the destruction caused by the fire in a residential neighbourhood of Cloquet.

Bushfires are a sadly common occurrence in Australia and two of the most damaging infernos in the country's history have happened in the state of Victoria. One such event happened in 1939, when several years of drought and a heatwave ended in a series of deadly blazes. Careless fire lighting by landowners and forest workers was also apportioned some blame. This map shows the huge area affected by the fires. 

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Soaring temperatures and fierce winds meant the fires quickly mushroomed out of control. They scorched more than 4.9 million acres of land and it's estimated that around 75% of the entire state was affected. Whole towns were swallowed up by fire, smoke engulfed the state and at least 71 people were killed.

The Chinchaga Fire, or the Chinchaga River fire as it's also known, remains in joint-first place as the world's largest forest fire in the Guinness World Records book. It was thought to have been started by human activity, most likely slash burning, and some three million acres of boreal forest across the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta were burned during the fire. The blaze lasted from early June right up to 31 October – no human deaths were recorded. Pictured here is the forest-hemmed Chinchaga River itself.

The Daxing'anling Fire, which blazed through forests in northeastern China's Greater Khingan Range, pictured, is the other candidate in the Guinness World Records list for the planet's largest forest fire (alongside Canada's 1950 Chinchaga Fire). It ravaged the area from 6 May to 2 June 1987 – more than 200 people were killed and the fire scourged more than 2.5 million acres. It's uncertain whether the fire was started naturally or by human error.

Large swathes of Indonesia were engulfed in a toxic haze from July 2019, due to the forest fires of the country's annual burning season, many of which are linked to slash-and-burn farming techniques. But while the 2019 fires caused an air pollution crisis, they weren't the worst ever recorded in the country. Blazes in 1997 were some of the most damaging in Indonesia's recent history, and this NASA map shows the dangerous levels of air pollution over the country during this time. The fires lasted right up until early 1998 and claimed the lives of at least 240 people.

Europe is no stranger to forest fires either – and one of the worst-affected countries in recent decades has been Greece. In the summer of 2007, the country experienced catastrophic fires which consumed more than 670,000 acres of forest and other land across the Peloponnese peninsula. Heartbreaking images littered the media, showing burned-out homes, grief-stricken families and charred farmland, and the infernos blazed for more than two months.

But these fires were not thought to be the work of Mother Nature herself – many were ultimately deemed an act of arson or negligence. By the time the last fire had been extinguished at the start of September 2007, the blaze had ended the lives of at least 84 people.

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The Black Saturday disaster in 2009 remains the worst bushfire Australia has ever seen. Scorching temperatures – Melbourne hit record highs of 46.4°C (115.5°F) – and raging winds led to the events of 7 February 2009, when a deadly firestorm destroyed large portions of the state of Victoria.

It's thought that a power line was felled by the violent winds, sparking an initial fire at Kilmore East, around 50 miles (80km) north of Melbourne. However, around 400 blazes in total raged during the firestorm, spreading their way across the state and impacting more than 78 communities. The death toll was reported at 173 people, and the fires destroyed thousands of homes and cremated close to one million acres of land.

Indonesia experienced yet more calamitous forest fires in 2015, with areas of western Sumatra and southern Kalimantan in Borneo hit the hardest. Torrid conditions and the El Niño effect exacerbated the fires, which raced through the country's tropical forests, destroying habitats, killing at least 19 people and causing many more to suffer dangerous respiratory tract infections. The fires started in the summer of 2015 and lasted for months on end.

Described as the costliest natural disaster in Canada's history, the Fort McMurray Wildfire engulfed northern Alberta in May 2016. More than 2,500 homes were destroyed in the fire and some 88,000 people were forced to flee – around CAD$3.6 billion ($2.8bn/£2bn) worth of insurance claims were also made as a result of the catastrophe, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada.

The huge inferno started with a single blaze on 1 May in a forest just southwest of Fort McMurray – by 3 May panic ensued as the city was swallowed by fire. It's unclear how the fire started, but authorities noted that the cause was most likely human.

Wildfires gutted parts of central Portugal from 17 June 2017, with the initial blaze breaking out near the small municipality of Pedrógão Grande, around two hours northeast of Lisbon. It's thought that the fire, which started during a severe heatwave, was caused when lightning hit a tree during a dry thunderstorm.

More than 60 people died in the firestorm, with much of the devastation occurring around Pedrógão Grande itself, and the blaze is considered the deadliest in Portuguese history. Reports differ but it's thought that more than 100,000 acres were burned. The country experienced more destructive fires in the summer of 2019, prompting a response involving more than 800 firefighters. 

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The wildfires in the US state of California have grabbed headlines over the past few years – and they're on the rise. The Tubbs Fire, which rushed through California's wine country in 2017, was the most devastating wildfire in the state's history at the time. It's thought that the fire was started in the city of Calistoga by sparks from fallen power lines, then intense winds fanned the flames.

The city of Santa Rosa, alongside other areas of Sonoma, Napa and Lake County, was gutted by the blaze – more than 5,000 homes and buildings were destroyed and at least 22 people were killed during the fire's rampage. Years later, the stricken communities are still feeling the effects.

Just a year later, an even deadlier fire tore through northern California's Butte County. Camp Fire, named as it began along Camp Creek Road, raged on for 17 days – it was caused by sparks from electrical transmission lines, which set fire to vegetation dried out by drought. Fierce Diablo winds meant the fire grew at a rapid rate.

The small Butte County town of Paradise was the hardest hit by the fire – USA Today reported that the town lost more than 90% of its population. Overall the fire took the lives of at least 85 people, ripped through 153,000 acres and destroyed around 14,000 homes. This photo shows the burned-out remains of a used car dealership in Paradise.

Greece saw one of the deadliest wildfires in history in July 2018, as multiple blazes roared through resort areas near Athens in the Attica region. The town of Mati and the village of Neos Voutzas were both severely affected, as was the area around Kineta. More than 100 people died, some of whom had attempted to flee to the sea, and over 1,000 buildings were destroyed.

It's thought that the fires may have been started accidentally by a 65-year-old man burning wood in his garden – and since the tragic events of 2018, numerous people, including officials, have been charged with negligent manslaughter, grievous bodily harm and arson in connection with the fires.

The fires that ripped through the Amazon – the largest tropical rainforest on the planet – dominated news outlets around the world in the summer of 2019. While fires here can be naturally occurring, the 2019 events were thought to have been primarily caused by slash-and-burn practices used by farmers to clear land for agriculture.

More than 30,000 separate fires raged during August alone – according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), that’s an increase of 196% when compared with August 2018. These numbers were the highest they’d been since 2010 (though they still didn’t reach the levels of 2005, one of the worst years for Amazon forest fires in modern history). The effects were devastating, with smoke shrouding Brazilian cities such as São Paulo and the homes of Indigenous people and native wildlife destroyed.

Brazil was the country worst affected and there were calls for former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to revise his attitude towards the environment, deforestation and the protection of the rainforest. Bolsonaro enforced a 60-day ban on land-clearance fires towards the end of August. The pace of the fires slowed between September and October, but they served as a powerful wake-up call the world over.

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Wildfires continued to consume California in 2019 too: the Kincade Fire was the largest of the season. More than 77,000 acres were burned in Sonoma County and almost 400 buildings and structures were destroyed. No fatalities were reported but at least four people were injured. Other aggressive fires blazed in Ventura County's Simi Valley, San Bernardino County and Los Angeles in 2019.

New South Wales also experienced deadly fires in 2019 – around one hundred bushfires raged through the state in what was termed a "mega blaze" roaring just north of Sydney, cloaking the city in smoke. On 31 January 2020, it was reported that fires had affected more than five million hectares in New South Wales and had destroyed more than 2,000 homes. This photo shows a blaze near the Blue Mountains city of Katoomba – reportedly 20% of the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area was burned by the infernos. 

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The vast and remote Russian region of Siberia also suffered serious forest fires in 2019. While wildfires here are not uncommon, experts say that the unusually warm weather and dry ground, paired with more thunderstorms and fierce winds, have led Arctic fires to spread quickly and violently in recent times. According to Greenpeace Russia, an area of around 8.2 million acres – that's more than the size of Belgium – was consumed by the blazes that year.

It's not 100% clear how the fires originated: some reports said that they were started on purpose to conceal illegal logging activity, while others concluded that they'd been caused by lightning. Russian authorities reported that the fires were finally extinguished at the end of September – by that time they had wrought an estimated £76 million ($100m) worth of damage, not to mention their impact on the forest's resident wildlife. Other areas of the Arctic, including Greenland, Alaska and Canada, were also impacted by fierce wildfires in 2019.

What might look like a beautiful sunset over downtown San Francisco in September 2020 was actually the beginning of what was to become the North Complex Fire. The fast and ferocious blazes, caused by lightning storms, engulfed the state, killing 16 people, destroying thousands of buildings and burning more than 300,000 acres. It combined with further fires in late summer and autumn which resulted in a staggering 4.1 million acres being scorched and a further 15 people perished. It was the state's worst wildfire on record, at the time.

Following record-breaking temperatures in the Pacific Northwest in the last days of June 2021, the number of wildfires in the US was at its highest level in a decade. The fires ravaged a region from Alaska to Wyoming, with more than 60 recorded fires across 10 states on 13 July. As well as high temperatures, the fires were worsened by drought. Firefighters attempted to put them out by dropping water to the ground by plane, but the air was so dry it evaporated before it got there.

California (pictured) was one of the worst affected areas – the number of fires overtook 2020’s fire season. Meanwhile the largest fire, in Oregon, razed an area twice the size of Portland. Large numbers of people had to evacuate their homes, people were urged to cut power consumption and around 16,000 firefighters were mobilised in an attempt to contain the blazes.

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The Dixie Fire in California – named after the street on which it started – was the second-largest in state history, spreading to a colossal area of 963,309 acres and destroying 1,329 structures. Sadly one firefighter died in connection with the blaze. On 5 January 2022, it was announced that the fire was caused by a tree falling on PG&E electrical lines.

Turkey is known for its high temperatures, especially in peak summer, but a deadly heatwave fed by hot air from North Africa ravaged the country in 2021. More than one hundred blazes caused by extreme heat intensity, which smashed a 20-year record, destroyed many parts of Turkey's southern coastal resort towns in late July, killing eight people and thousands of animals. Nearly 250,000 acres of land burned, with residents saying it was "raining ashes".

Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes, as well as tourists at hotel complexes in the popular holiday resorts of Marmaris, Manavgat (pictured) and Bodrum, as fires continued to rage on in early August. Firefighters had to battle with searing 40°C (104°F) temperatures and many holidaymakers had to be rescued by boat to escape the flames.

Wildfires burned throughout Europe over the summer months in 2021. In Greece, fires destroyed more than 140,000 acres of land in late July and early August according to the European Forest Fire Information System. The blazes were worst on Evia, Greece’s second-largest island, and more than 2,000 people were evacuated.

Firefighters, helicopters and even the military were deployed to contain the fires. Vast regions of forest were razed, houses crumbled to the ground and locals and tourists had to flee. The fires broke out following the most severe heatwave in 30 years which saw unprecedented temperatures of more than 45°C (113°F) – which, in turn, has been linked to human-caused climate change.

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In the last decade, severe forest fires have occurred every summer in Siberia due to warmer temperatures and drought. A report by Greenpeace, based on data from the Russian Forestry Agency, revealed that 2021's fire damage was the worst since records began in 2001. In 2021 more than 18 million hectares of Russian forest were destroyed – an area equivalent to the whole state of Missouri, USA. These destructive events also caused an unprecedented spike in carbon dioxide emissions.

The fires had a significant impact on air quality and sparked one of the world's worst-ever air pollution events in the Siberian city of Yakutsk. In July and August, when the fires were at their worst, the city and surrounding areas were covered in thick toxic smoke, which contained high levels of particulate matter and possibly chemicals like ozone, benzyne and hydrogen cyanide. Local authorities warned the 320,000 residents to stay indoors as levels of PM2.5 (small particles that can enter the bloodstream and damage organs) reached 40 times the recommended norm.

Thousands were forced to flee the Lake Tahoe area in California’s Sierra Mountains as a deadly wildfire burned through the region. Known as the Caldor Fire, the flames broke out on 14 August 2021 and consumed a whopping 221,835 acres, destroying around a thousand structures. The governors of California and Nevada, Gavin Newsom and Steve Sisolak, both declared a state of emergency in the Alpine, Amador and Placer counties near the lake, as the fire churned through the mountains.

Following the evacuation order, the roads in the area quickly became clogged with nearby residents and visitors scrambling to leave the city. Pictured here is evacuee Mel Smothers, playing the violin as he and thousands of others were waiting in a traffic jam on Highway 50. Evacuees faced miles upon miles of traffic as the fire continued to spread nearby, with ash raining down on cars as they slowly moved through the smoky haze.

At least 3,684 firefighters battled the blaze, trying to keep it from reaching the Lake Tahoe basin, even using snow guns from the empty ski resorts nearby. Thankfully the community of South Lake Tahoe was spared but it wasn't until 21 October 2021 that the fire was declared 100% contained. The fire near Lake Tahoe, like many others in the western US, is thought to have been caused by a combination of the climate crisis, years of fire suspension and poor infrastructure as well as an increase in population, which has made the area extremely vulnerable to forest fires.

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At the end of December 2021, fires spread rapidly through parts of Boulder County in the state of Colorado after months of unusually dry weather in the region. Firefighters struggled to get a hand on the situation as the blaze destroyed nearly 1,000 homes in mere days. Thousands of people were also evacuated. The state's governor, Jared Polis, said the flames were consuming football field-lengths of land in seconds and declared a state of emergency.

Heavy snowfall on New Year's Eve and into the early days of January 2022 helped extinguish the fires, exposing the burned-out shells of homes and cars. At least two people were deemed missing, presumed dead, as a result of the disaster.

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Siberia endured one of its biggest wildfire events to date in 2022. Larger than all other fires in the world combined, the blaze burned through a staggering 3.2 million hectares of forest in the Siberian and Far East regions of Russia from January onwards. More than 200 homes burned down, at least 13 people died and the fine particle concentration in the air reached hazardous levels in the city of Krasnoyarsk. The fire continued unchecked into May, with reports speculating that crucial Russian military fire-fighting units had been deployed to the war in Ukraine instead.

The fast-moving Oak Fire in Mariposa County, near Yosemite National Park, raged through the state on 22 July 2022 after extreme heat combined with tinder-dry forests and underbrush ignited. Within 48 hours, it had already burned 15,600 acres of land, forced 6,000 people to evacuate their homes and destroyed more than 10 structures.

The blaze was fanned by gusty winds and the extreme drought conditions; temperatures reaching 38°C (100°F) meant dense and dry vegetation lit up like matchsticks. By the time it had reached 45% containment towards the end of July, more than 19,200 acres and 162 structures had been consumed. Then, just as evacuation orders were lifted, California was struck by another, even more ferocious fire...

The McKinney Fire, which started in Siskiyou County just as the Oak Fire was under control, grew to become the largest blaze in the state in 2022. After the initial ignition, the fire swelled a staggering 62 times in size, torching vehicles and homes along its path. The blaze burned more than 60,000 acres of Klamath National Forest.

Even after the flames were mostly contained, evacuation orders remained in place while erratic winds and triple-digit (Fahrenheit) temperatures still posed a threat to reignition. Ultimately, there were four fatalities caused by McKinney and nearly 200 structures were decimated.

Northern California was engulfed in terrifying heat and wildfires at the end of August and beginning of September 2022. Among the blazes was Mill Fire, which was responsible for the deaths of two people as well as destroying at least 117 buildings and more than 4,200 acres of land in Siskiyou County.

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For two unrelenting months, the Gironde region of southwest France was beset by some of the worst wildfires in the country's history. In July 2022, exacerbated by a continent-wide drought that turned the region's forests into tinder boxes, fires incinerated 37,000 acres of pine trees and nearly 40,000 people had to be evacuated from the area. Though the blaze was contained for a time, it continued to smoulder and flared up again in early August.

Firefighters with decades of experience said the fires were by far the worst they had ever witnessed. Come September, around 500 people were forced to flee once again with the ignition of another wildfire. As reported by Reuters, that brought the total land lost in France in 2022 close to 65,000 hectares – six times the average for 2006 to 2021, according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System.

From May into June 2023, the eastern Canadian province of Nova Scotia battled its most destructive wildfires in recorded history. As of Thursday 1 June 2023, there were 16 active fires tearing across the southern tip of the province, with four of them considered to be out of control at the time. Officials confirmed that 20,000 hectares were burned, with fires in suburban Halifax and Shelburne County alone consuming at least 250 homes and other structures. More than 20,000 people were evacuated, but there were thankfully no reported fatalities or injuries.

The firestorm was so severe that air-quality warnings were issued as far south as Virginia and Maryland in the United States. This image, taken on 31 May 2023, shows one of eight planes dispatched from neighbouring province New Brunswick dropping a mix of water and fire retardant on the Barrington Lake inferno in Shelburne County – one of the out-of-control blazes, which torched an area more than five times the size of Nova Scotia’s worst forest fire in 2022.

More than 19,000 people fled the Greek island of Rhodes in July 2023, in fear of their lives, as firefighters struggled to contain some 82 wildfires burning across the country. Sixty-four of the fires started on Sunday 23 July, the hottest day in the country so far, with temperatures reaching a suffocating 46.4°C (115.5°F) in the southern seaside town of Gytheio. The trail of destruction and devastation across Rhodes  forced residents to head north and vacationers to fly home – many of whom couldn't get repatriation flights for days. The Ministry of Climate Change and Civil Protection said it was “the largest evacuation from a wildfire in the country.” Hot, windy, dry conditions, combined with exceptionally high temperatures brought on by European heatwave Cerberus, caused the fires to spread to the islands of Corfu and Evia. 

On August 8 people jumped into the ocean to escape fast-moving flames and the historic town of Lahaina was wiped out when wildfires fanned by winds from Hurricane Dora burned everything in its path on the island of Maui in Hawaii. Boats burned in harbours, over 2,000 structures were destroyed or damaged and the oldest living banyan tree on the island, estimated to be 150 years old, was burned to a crisp. With 110 people dead and thousands still missing, Hawaii governor Josh Green declared that it could well be the deadliest US fire ever. "Our hearts [are broken] beyond repair,” he said.

In mid-August a ferocious inferno fuelled by highly flammable pine trees tore through 1,800 hectares (4,450 acres) in northern Tenerife, with isolated mountain villages evacuated and flames threatening the tourist hotspots of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Puerto de la Cruz. Authorities deployed 14 aircraft and a combined 250 firefighters and military to battle the blaze which started in the steep ravines near the Mount Teide volcano and hence difficult to control. A heatwave in the Canary Islands the week before left many areas bone dry, adding even more fuel to a fire that authorities described as “out of control.”

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