Wildfires devastating richer areas but fewer hectares burned globally – study

Trees sway in high winds as the Eaton fire rips through Altadena, California, on 8 January last year. Photograph: Ethan Swope/AP View image in fullscreen Trees sway in high winds as the Eaton fire rips through Altadena, California, on 8 January last year. Photograph: Ethan Swope/AP Wildfires devastating richer areas but fewer hectares burned globally – study ‘Megafires’ in California, Canada, South Korea and Europe in 2025, but changes to farming slowed spread in parts of Africa “Devastating” wildfires ripped across the wealthier parts of the world in 2025, a study has found, even as globally, the area ravaged by flames fell. Catastrophic blazes claimed lives, homes and jobs last year in California , Canada, Europe and South Korea. But the 335m hectares burned was the second-lowest since 2002, the review found, largely owing to the expansion of African farms that have fragmented landscapes and hampered the spread of large savannah fires. The disasters in 2025 included a Scottish “megafire” that torched more than 100,000 hectares – contributing to the UK breaking its record for burned area – and the Palisades and Eaton fires in Los Angeles, which were among the most destructive in US history . Record-breaking blazes in Spain and Portugal burned more than half a million hectares, while South Korea had its biggest and deadliest wildfire season on record. Fires accounted for more than 38% of insured losses from weather disasters in 2025, the study found. “2025 shows that a ‘quiet’ fire year globally can still be devastating,” said Matthew Jones, a climate scientist at the University of East Anglia and lead author of the study. “We are seeing a growing disconnect between total area burned and real-world impacts.” View image in fullscreen A wildfire roars through Galloway forest park in Scotland on 7 April last year. Photograph: Galloway mountain rescue team/PA Changes in land use mean wildfires burn less of the planet than they have historically done, but global heating is creating conditions allowing them to spread, increasing the danger at what researchers call the wildland-urban interface, where people are most at risk. Adverse weather, inflamed by carbon pollution, turned some of last year’s fires into explosive infernos. In southern California and South Korea, the researchers found, high winds and dry vegetation pushed fires through densely populated areas, causing “exceptional mortality, mass evacuations, and major infrastructure losses”. In the Mediterranean, meanwhile, drought and extreme heat drove severe blazes, from Portugal to Turkey. “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,” said David Garcia, an applied mathematician at the University of Alicante, who was not involved in the study. “This makes large fires more likely to occur.” View image in fullscreen Strong winds drive a wildfire towards a chu