Devastating wildfires tore through wealthier regions of the world in 2025, claiming lives, homes, and jobs, even as the total area burned globally fell to its second-lowest level since 2002, according to a new study.
Global Burn Area Declines, But Impacts Intensify
The study found that 335 million hectares burned worldwide in 2025, a reduction largely attributed to the expansion of African farms, which have fragmented landscapes and limited the spread of large savannah fires. However, catastrophic blazes in California, Canada, Europe, and South Korea caused exceptional destruction.
Matthew Jones, a climate scientist at the University of East Anglia and lead author of the study, said: “2025 shows that a ‘quiet’ fire year globally can still be devastating. We are seeing a growing disconnect between total area burned and real-world impacts.”
Major Disasters of 2025
The year’s disasters included a Scottish “megafire” that burned over 100,000 hectares, helping the UK break its record for burned area. In Los Angeles, the Palisades and Eaton fires ranked among the most destructive in US history. Record-breaking blazes in Spain and Portugal scorched more than half a million hectares, while South Korea experienced its largest and deadliest wildfire season on record.
Fires accounted for more than 38% of insured losses from weather disasters in 2025, the study noted.
Climate Change Fuels Extreme Fire Behavior
Changes in land use have reduced the global area burned historically, but global heating is creating conditions that allow fires to spread more explosively, particularly at the wildland-urban interface where people are most at risk.
In southern California and South Korea, high winds and dry vegetation drove fires through densely populated areas, causing “exceptional mortality, mass evacuations, and major infrastructure losses,” the researchers reported. In the Mediterranean, drought and extreme heat fueled severe blazes from Portugal to Turkey.
David Garcia, an applied mathematician at the University of Alicante not involved in the study, explained: “These conditions do not cause the fires, but in the event of a fire, we have material that is more flammable than usual – because it is drier – and wind conditions that fan the flames. This makes large fires more likely to occur.”
Attribution Study Links Climate Breakdown to Fires
An attribution study co-authored by Garcia last year found that extreme weather fueling fires in Portugal and Spain was made 39 times more likely by climate breakdown. “If we continue to warm the planet, large-scale fires will continue to increase,” he warned.
Carbon Emissions and Health Impacts
The overall reduction in global burned area led to a drop in carbon dioxide emissions to their third-lowest level on record. However, in Canada, extreme wildfire emissions were recorded for the third consecutive year. Since 2023, boreal forests in North America have emitted nearly 4 billion tonnes of CO2, exceeding the total emissions of the preceding 15-year period.
Beyond heating the planet, wildfire smoke causes significant health impacts. A study published in September found that toxic particles from Canadian wildfires in 2023 killed 82,000 people, with smoke affecting cities in the US, Europe, and Africa.
Need for Landscape Resilience
Adrián Regos, a landscape ecologist at the Biological Mission of Galicia, Spain, not involved in the study, noted that last year’s events illustrate how a relatively small number of extreme fires can dominate ecological, social, and economic consequences.
“The broader pattern highlighted by this study is consistent with what we are observing across southern Europe: while total burned area may fluctuate from year to year, climate change is increasing the likelihood of extreme fire-weather conditions, and fuel accumulation associated with rural abandonment is making many landscapes more vulnerable to large, fast-moving fires,” he said. “The challenge is therefore not only reducing the number of fires, but increasing the resilience of landscapes and communities to extreme events.”
