Wildfires caused more financial damage in 2025 than in any other year, with catastrophic fires in the US, South Korea and Europe killing about 90 people and forcing roughly 300,000 to evacuate, a new study found.
Wildfires accounted for 38 per cent of all insured natural hazard losses globally in 2025 – more than hurricanes, earthquakes and floods combined – even as the total area burned was the second lowest since records began in 2002 and 16 per cent below the long-term average.
Researchers say the pattern reflects a shift in how wildfires cause harm: there are fewer fires overall but they are hitting populated areas with greater intensity and speed than before.
“2025 shows that a ‘quiet’ fire year globally can still be devastating,” Dr Matthew Jones of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia, who led the study, said. “We are seeing a growing disconnect between total area burned and real-world impacts, with risk increasingly determined by fire location, intensity and exposure.”
The study, published in the journal Nature Reviews Earth and Environment, also found that total fire-related carbon emissions fell in 2025, to 11 billion tonnes of CO2, the third-lowest year since 2002.
But for all the coverage of wildfires Europe, Asia and North America, Africa suffers many times the damage to its landscape from wildfires. Satellite data from the Global Wildfire Information System, which is backed by Nasa and the EU’s Copernicus observatory, shows that in 2024, some 7.3 per cent of Africa’s landmass was burnt, compared to just 0.6 per cent in both Europe and the US.
While Western countries are amping up their support for each other in the face of climate-driven blazes, the foreign aid programmes that support fire-fighting efforts in African countries was slashed in 2025 and is set to continue this year, The Independent has found, with experts warning that this could have devastating impacts on wildfire-prone nations.
The single costliest event in 2025 was the Palisades and Eaton fires, which tore through the Los Angeles area in January 2025. Driven by extreme Santa Ana winds and critically dry vegetation, the fires burned over 20,000 hectares, killed 31 people directly, destroyed nearly 12,000 homes, and forced some 150,000 evacuations.
Smoke exposure affected more than 10 million people, with pollution levels reaching nearly 20 times the WHO’s daily guideline for fine particulate matter. Fine particular matter means tiny particles that penetrate deep into the lungs.
Total losses were estimated at $140bn (£110bn), with insured losses approaching $40bn (£32bn), making it the fifth costliest natural disaster in recorded history.
Two months later, South Korea recorded its deadliest and largest wildfire outbreak on record. Extreme heat, dryness and winds drove fires that burned over 100,000 hectares, killed 32 people and displaced tens of thousands of residents. A study found the conditions that enabled the fires were made twice as likely by climate change.
In Europe, severe drought and repeated heatwaves drove major outbreaks in Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, and France during the summer of 2025, killing at least 28 people and forcing 120,000 evacuations.
Such was the scale of the emergency that six countries simultaneously requested firefighting resources through the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism, a mutual aid system for member states to pool personnel, equipment and aircraft during disasters.
Spain recorded its largest burned area since 2002, with more than 350,000 hectares affected and eight deaths. Portugal’s largest wildfire on record was ignited by lightning. In Turkey, the rapid spread of fire around Izmir forced 50,000 evacuations and a separate fire in July killed 10 firefighters. France saw its largest fire since 1949, burning 17,000 hectares in 72 hours.
The UK suffered its largest burned area on record as well as its first megafire – a fire exceeding 10,000 hectares – on Dava Moor in Scotland during a severe heatwave.
World Weather Attribution, an international scientific collaboration analysing the role of climate change in extreme weather, found the fire-prone conditions driving the worst European outbreaks were five to 40 times more likely in the current climate than in a world without climate change.
In Canada, 2025 was the third consecutive year of extreme wildfire emissions, mainly from its vast carbon-rich boreal forests.
Since 2023, fires in North American boreal forests have released roughly four billion tonnes of CO2, exceeding the combined emissions of the preceding 15 years. Forests that burn repeatedly may lose their ability to recover, turning from carbon stores into net sources of emissions that accelerate further warming.
The study identifies a broader trend: as savannah burning in Africa declines, pulling down the global total area burned, extreme and destructive fires are growing in temperate and high-latitude regions where forests are denser, communities are more exposed and climate-driven drought and heatwaves are intensifying.
Population growth at the boundary between developed land and wild vegetation is also increasing the number of people in the path of fast-moving fires.
“Deadly human-caused wildfires in California, Europe and South Korea in the same year as extensive consumption of carbon stocks in Canada highlights how rapidly climate change is producing conditions for extreme wildfires to thrive across a range of biomes and seasons,” said Prof Crystal Kolden of the University of California, Merced, a co-author of the study.
“The co-occurrence of multiple devastating fires is particularly problematic, hampering resource sharing between countries and putting more civilians at risk. Unfortunately future fire projections show these types of outbreaks will only increase.”
Dr Jones said the wildfires of 2025 demonstrated that without decisive action, “societies will continue to face escalating human, economic and environmental risks in an era of more extreme fires”.
Researchers call for rapid cuts in fossil fuel emissions to limit further warming, along with stronger adaptation, including proactive management of vegetation, resilient infrastructure and evacuation planning suited to increasingly fire-prone landscapes.
This article has been produced as part of The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid project
