2023’s Record Breaking Fire Season

By Misko Finlayson

Over the course of 164 days in 2023, a total of 7,131 fires burned across Canada. In a single season of record-breaking dryness and heat, 17,203,625 hectares (ha) burned, which is the equivalent land area of Iceland and Ireland combined!

Canada has never experienced wildfire quite like it did in 2023. The previous record was 7,597,266 ha burned in 1989--less than half of 2023’s total; and for comparison 5.3 million ha were burned in 2024, including the devastating Jasper fires. With so much wildfire everywhere and every agency sending as much equipment and people available to each incident, it quickly became apparent that help was needed from beyond our borders.

Canada’s overarching wildfire coordinator, the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) sent out the call for help, and by mid-May the US had sent Incident Management Team (IMT) members and firefighters to Alberta to assist with wildfires. The first batch of Australian and New Zealander IMT and firefighters arrived later in May. From May to October, Canada received 5,504 highly trained professionals from 12 different countries: Spain, Portugal, France, Chile, Costa Rica, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, United States, Mexico, Korea, and South Africa.

These individuals, along with nearly 2,000 Canadians, fought fires ranging from the most northern to the most southern borders of Canada, including multiple national parks.

In 2023, twenty national parks logged 109 wildfires that resulted in more than one million hectares burned. One of the most impacted areas was Wood Buffalo National Park, where 19% of the park (929,521 ha) burned. The first fire in the park was spotted and actioned by fire crews on May 26th. By the end of the season, Wood Buffalo National Park crews had managed wildfires for over 140 consecutive days.

Parks Canada employs 88 type 1 firefighters (individuals trained to conduct initial attacks and respond to high complexity fires) and roughly 100 type 2 firefighters (individuals trained to respond to low and moderate complexity fires). The work crews are distributed among various parks and are available for export when need arises. With such a small contingent of firefighters, Parks Canada was grateful to receive outside help from provincial, territorial, as well as international agencies.

Parks Canada deployed firefighters and support personnel to 20 different wildfires across the country during 2023. From finance roles to fireline action, 303 individuals collectively worked a total of 8,620 days.

Pukaskwa National Park also saw fire action in August of 2023. A single storm passing over the park started 10 lightning-born wildfires. Fortunately, Pukaskwa had a few type-2 firefighters that joined the 4-person type-1 crew and greatly contributed to successfully controlling the Pukaskwa wildfires in a timely manner. The park’s great IMT organized all the gear and supplies necessary to keep the firefighters well prepared for the long haul, and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources provided assistance by quickly responding and actioning two fires on the edge of the park.

From coast to coast to coast, such an unprecedented wildfire season benefitted from national and international collaboration. Stay tuned for a future story about the role of the IMT written by one of the communication officers, who was deployed to Jasper in 2024.

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