Prescribed Fire  |  Historical Wildland Fire  |  Wildland Fire 
 
 
        This is a list of some of the most serious wildland fires in U.S. history.  Some were significant because of their size, others because of the value of the resources lost.  Some small, but very intense, fires were important because of the loss of lives and property.  There have been larger fires than some of those included on this list, but few or none with greater impact on lives and resources.

 
Historically Significant Wildland Fires
Date
Name
Location

Acres

Significance
October 1825 Miramichi and Maine Fires New Brunswick and Maine 3,000,000

Large Amount of Acreage Burned
October 1871 Peshtigo Wisconsin and Michigan 3,780,000

1,500 Lives Lost in Wisconsin
September 1881 Michigan Michigan 1,000,000 169 Lives Lost
September 1894 Hinckley Minnesota Undetermined 418 Lives Lost
September 1894 Wisconsin Wisconsin Several Million Undetermined, Some Lives Lost
September 1902 Yacoult Washington and Oregon 1,000,000 + 38 Lives Lost
April 1903 Adirondack New York 637,000 Large Amount of Acreage Burned
August 1910 Great Idaho Idaho and Montana 3,000,000 85 Lives Lost
October 1918 Cloquet-Moose Lake Minnesota 250,000 450 Lives Lost
August 1933 Tillamook Oregon 311,000 1 Life Lost, Same area burned again in 1939
October 1947 Maine Maine 205,678 16 Lives Lost
1949 Mann Gulch Montana 4,339 13 Smokejumpers Killed
1967 Sundance Idaho 56,000 Burned 50,000 acres in just nine hours
September 1970 Laguna California 175,425 382 Structures Destroyed
July 1977 Sycamore California 805 234 Structures Destroyed
November 1980 Panorama California 23,600 325 Structures Destroyed
1987 Siege of 87' California 640,000 Valuable timber lost on the Klamath and Stanislaus National Forests
1988 Yellowstone Montana and Idaho 1,585,000

Large Amount of Acreage Burned
1988 Canyon Creek Montana 250,000

Large Amount of Acreage Burned
June 1990 Painted Cave California 4,900 641 Structures Destroyed
June 1990 Dude Fire Arizona 24,174 6 Lives Lost
63 homes destroyed
October 1991 Oakland Hills California 1,500 25 Lives Lost and 2,900 Structures Destroyed
August 1992 Foothills Fire Idaho 257,000 1 Life Lost
July 1994 South Canyon Fire Colorado 1,856 14 Lives Lost
July 1994 Idaho City Complex Idaho 154,000 1 Life Lost
August 1996 Cox Wells Idaho 219,000

Largest Fire of the Year
June 1996 Millers Reach  Alaska 37,336 344 Structures Destroyed
July 1997 Inowak  Alaska 610,000 Threatened 3 Villages
1998 Volusia Complex Florida 111,130

Thousands of people evacuated from several counties
1998 Flagler/St. John Florida 94,656 Forced the evacuation of thousands of residents
August 1999 Dunn Glen Complex Nevada 288,220 Largest Fire of the Year
August - November 1999 Big Bar Complex California 140,947 Series of fires caused several evacuations during a 3 1/2 month period
September - November 1999 Kirk Complex California 86,700

 Hundreds of people were evacuated by this complex of fires that burned for almost 3 months
May 2000 Cerro Grande New Mexico 47,650 Originally a prescribed fire, 235 structures destroyed and
Los Alamos National Laboratory damaged