The Home Office and Devolved Administrations produce estimates of the number and area of wildfires each year, using data recorded by Fire and Rescue Services using the Incident Reporting System.  These figures were previously produced by the Department for Communities and Local Government.

By analysing the wildfire data with the National Forest Inventory woodland map, it has been possible to produce estimates of fires that occur within woodlands in Great Britain.

No update is currently available, so the results shown below are as published in Forestry Statistics 2018.

Table 5.3a shows the number of woodland fires in 2010-11 to 2016-17.  There has been some fluctuation in the number of woodland fires in Great Britain over this period, with a high of around 9 thousand fires in 2011-12 and a low of around 2,500 in 2012-13.  Most fires occurred in England.

The total number of woodland fires in Great Britain in 2016-17 (around 4,200) represents 4% of the total of around 119,000 outdoor fires in Great Britain in 2016-17 (Home Office, Welsh Government, Scottish Government).

Table 5.3a Number of woodland fires

^{Source: Fire & Rescue Service Incident Recording System, National Forest Inventory.}

These figures are outside the scope of National Statistics.  For further information see the Sources chapter.

Table 5.3b shows the area covered by woodland fires between 2010-11 and 2016-17.  There was a peak of around 8,700 hectares burnt in 2011-12, with the vast majority of this area occurring in Scotland.

Around 800 hectares of woodland in Great Britain were burnt in 2016-17.

Table 5.3b Area of woodland fires

^{Source: Fire & Rescue Service Incident Recording System, National Forest Inventory.}

These figures are outside the scope of National Statistics.  For further information see the Sources chapter.

Additional resources

Sources chapter: Environment