Research and analysis

Forestry Commission Wildfire statistics for England: Report to 2020-21 - Summary

Published 16 February 2023

Applies to England

• Publication for Northern Ireland
• Publication for Scotland
• Publication for Wales

1. Summary

This report provides the results of analyses of all wildfire incidents attended by the Fire and Rescue Services in England over the twelve years 2009-10 to 2020-21. The report provides the number of wildfires in total and disaggregates this total into a range of relevant typologies such as area burnt, duration and location and in particular the coincidence of wildfires with woodland, a range of other land cover types and environmentally designated areas. This report updates and replaces our previous report on this topic. It includes a range of revisions to the statistics we previously reported on this topic reflecting improvements to our methodology and updates to the data. Our findings are that there were a large number of wildfires over these twelve years. There was a lot of variability in the numbers of wildfires and area of land burnt from year to year. There was also a lot of variability in the occurrences within the year, with the greatest area of land burnt in April, June and July. Most wildfires were small although some were larger and some of landscape scale. Nearly 13,000 wildfires met the National Operational Guidance Programme (NOGP) definition of (larger) wildfires, whilst over 12,000 counted as ‘primary’ wildfires. Wildfires occurred on all land cover types, including particularly in built-up areas and gardens and also on mountain, heath and bog and grassland. Over the twelve-year period 14% of the total number of wildfires occurred in woodland.

2. Key findings

2.1 Number of wildfires, area burnt and their duration

Fire and Rescue Services attended over 360,000 wildfire incidents in England over the twelve years from 2009-10 to 2020-21 inclusive; an average of over 30,000 incidents per annum. In total just over 79,000 hectares of land was burnt; an average of over 6,600 hectares per annum. The total duration of the incidents was just under 540,000 hours; an average of just under 45,000 hours per annum.

2.2 Peak years

Across the twelve years the data shows the greatest number of wildfire incidents, about 47,000, took place in 2011-12; and the least, about 16,000 in 2012-13. However, far and away the greatest area of land burnt by wildfire incidents, over 26,000 hectares, was in 2018-19. This shows that the number and size of incidents have varied quite a lot from year to year. Weather conditions are likely to have had a significant impact on the likelihood and severity of wildfires incidents in England.

2.3 Woodland wildfires

The proportion of the total number of wildfires that occurred in woodland - our definition of woodland is that which meets the National Forest Inventory definition of woodland, (14.2% over the twelve years) has generally increased a little from 12-15% in the first three years to 15%-19% in the most recent three years. The greatest figure was 19% in the most recent year 2020-21. Throughout the twelve year period each year the overwhelming majority of wildfires in woodland have been in broadleaved woodland.

2.4 National Operational Guidance Programme wildfires

There nearly 13,000 wildfires to the National Operational Guidance Programme (NOGP) definition of ‘wildfires’ in England in these twelve years. These NOGP wildfires burnt an area of over 77,000 hectares and had a duration of over 277,000 hours. The overwhelming majority (86.6%) of NOGP wildfires were ‘small’ on the UKVFS size categorisation; however there were some larger ones too and 18 NOGP wildfires were of a landscape scale over these twelve years.

2.5 Primary wildfires

There over 12,000 ‘primary’ wildfires in England in these twelve years, representing 3.4% of all wildfires. These took place on a wide range of land cover classes. The greatest number of these were in built-up areas and gardens (29%), or arable land (22.8%), or NFI woodland (15.2%) of which broadleaved woodland had most (7.7%) and then conifer woodland (4.1%).

2.6 Wildfires on sites with environmental designations

There were over 4,700 wildfires in National Parks that burnt over 14,000 hectares of land, and nearly 11,000 wildfires on Sites of Special Scientific Interest that burnt over 28,000 hectares of land, over the twelve years.

2.7 Wildfires by land cover class

Of the ca. 360,000 wildfires across the years 2009-10 to 2020-21 the majority took place in built-up areas and gardens (54.4%), improved grassland (14.4%) or in woodland (14.2%, of which broadleaved woodland 10.4% and conifer woodland 1.8%). After this, wildfires on arable land (7.7%) were most prevalent. Wildfires took place across all woodland types and all other land covers.

2.8 Area of land burnt in wildfires

The overwhelming majority (99.5%) of wildfires are small (less than one hectare) in terms of area of land burnt, on the UK Vegetation Fire Standard (UKFVS) size classification. Nearly all the rest were medium sized (1 to 49 hectares). Out of the exact figure of 362,466 wildfires in England in these twelve years only 45 were large (50 to 99 hectares), 67 very large (100 to 999 hectares) and 18 landscape scale (>1,000 hectares). Of the 360,833 (99.5%) small wildfires (under 1 hectare) of the total 362,466 wildfires in these twelve years most were very small: 53.0% were less than or equal to 5 m2 in extent and 16% 6 to 10 m2 in extent.

2.9 Area of land burnt by month of the year

Of the ca. 79,000 hectares of land burnt by wildfires in England in these twelve years, the largest percentage was burnt in April (over 25,000 hectares, 31.9%), followed next by July (nearly 18,000 hectares, 22.2%) and June (over 10,000 hectares, 13.2%). Very little land was burnt across a wide range of months from September to January. The least area of land burnt was in December (only about 9 hectares, 0.01%).

2.10 Area of land burnt by land cover by month of the year

Of the over 25,000 hectares of wildfires in April that was the month with the greatest area of land burnt by wildfires across these twelve years, most of the area burnt was mountain, heath and bog (over 15,000 hectares, 60.0%), followed next by semi-natural grassland (nearly 4,700 hectares, 18.6%). By contrast, for the nearly 18,000 hectares burnt by wildfires in July, most of the area burnt was improved grassland (nearly, 6,000 hectares, 33.0%), followed by built-up areas and gardens (nearly 5,000 hectares, 27.8%).

2.11 Area of woodland burnt by month of the year

Across these twelve years the month when the greatest area of woodland in total was burnt was July (about 1,290 hectares), equating to 7.3% of the total area of all land covers burnt in July. April and May were also months when there was more woodland burnt (848 hectares and 834 hectares respectively). Very little woodland was burnt in the more wintry months broadly from October to January inclusive. The least area of woodland burnt was in December (just 1.2 hectares).

2.12 Regional distribution

The statistical region with largest number of wildfires per square kilometre over this twelve year period was London by a large margin (20 per km2), followed by the north east (4 per square km2). The south west had the least (1 per km2). However, by contrast in terms of the area of land burnt in wildfires the north west had the most by some margin (3.2 hectares per km2), followed by Yorkshire and the Humber (0.7 per km2), then London (0.4 hectares per km2).

2.13 Wildfires in the uplands of England

There were a total of 2,495 wildfires in the uplands of England in these twelve years, representing 0.7% of all wildfires. The greatest number of these were on mountain, heath or bog land cover (1,069 hectares, 42.8%), or semi-natural grassland (654 hectares, 26.2%), or in built-up areas and gardens (233 hectares, 9.3%), and then National Forest Inventory woodland (142 hectares, 5.7%) of which broadleaved woodland had most (78 hectares, 3.1%) then conifer woodland (28 hectares, 1.1%). On the UKFVS size categorization the vast majority of the upland wildfires were small (2,290 hectares, 91.8%) or medium in size (156 hectares, 6.3%). Far fewer are large, very large or landscape scale (each 1% or less). There were four landscape scale wildfires in the uplands in these twelve years.

2.14 Wildfires in Fire and Rescue Authority areas

The greatest number of separate wildfire incidents per square kilometre over these twelve years were recorded in in Fire and Rescue Authority (FRA) areas comprising major metropolitan areas. The greatest number were recorded in the West Midlands FRA (27 wildfires per km2), Tyne and Wear (25 per km2) and Merseyside (22 per km2), with the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority next (20 per km2). Least, in terms of numbers of incidents were recorded in North Yorkshire and Cumbria (each 0.5 per km2). Greater Manchester FRA experienced the greatest area burnt by wildfires (over 30,000 hectares), followed by Lancashire FRA (over 11,000 hectares).

2.15 Wildfires by Unitary and Local Authority

There was an average of 2.8 wildfire incidents per km2 across all the 310 unitary and local authorities in England in these twelve years. The greatest number of wildfire incidents was recorded in County Durham (8,615), then Birmingham (7,475) and all of the ten authorities with the greatest numbers of wildfires are predominantly urban in nature. The least number of wildfires was recorded in the City of London (7) and most of the ten authorities with the least numbers of wildfires are either characterised by central city locations or are rural in nature. By contrast, the greatest area burnt by wildfires was in Blackburn with Darwen (10,136 hectares), then Tameside (9,875 hectares), Oldham (8,584 hectares) and four further local authorities in Greater Manchester or West Yorkshire. The least area burnt by wildfires was in the City of London (just 18 square metres), followed by, for example, several other inner London authorities (each with under one hectare burnt).