The United States had 77,850 wildfires in 2025, more than in 2024, yet they burned 5,131,474 acres, 42.5 per cent less land than the year before. Five new charts, built from the National Interagency Coordination Center's 2025 annual report, show where the fires were, what started them and which ones grew the largest.
Where the fires were
California reported the most wildfires, 8,951, as the wildfires by state chart shows. The next two places went to Virginia with 7,709 and North Carolina, both in the East, where most fires are small and almost all are started by people. Virginia had just 11 lightning fires all year.
Counting burned land gives a very different map. In the acres burned chart, Alaska leads with 1,006,158 acres from only 465 fires, 19.6 per cent of the national total. That makes Alaska's fires the largest on average: 2,164 acres each in the average wildfire size chart, against 65.9 for the country as a whole.
People start most fires, lightning burns most land
Nationally, 89.3 per cent of wildfires were in the report's human-caused column, but those fires burned only 44.3 per cent of the land. The human-caused share chart shows the split: close to 100 per cent in most eastern states, and between about 50 and 70 per cent across much of the West. Among the states that burned the most land, Oklahoma stands out: lightning fires burned only 60 of its 304,120 acres.
The largest fires
The Dragon Bravo Fire, which started on July 4 in Grand Canyon National Park, was the largest of the year at 145,504 acres. The largest wildfires chart lists 20 fires; 13 were started by lightning and 4 were in Alaska. The five largest together burned 672,187 acres, 13.1 per cent of the national total.
| Chart | Top | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Number of Wildfires by State 2025 | California | 8,951 fires |
| Acres Burned by Wildfires by State 2025 | Alaska | 1,006,158 acres |
| Share of Wildfires Caused by Humans by State 2025 | Iowa | 100.0% |
| Average Wildfire Size by State 2025 | Alaska | 2,163.8 acres |
| Largest Wildfires in the US in 2025 | Dragon Bravo (Arizona) | 145,504 acres |
Acres are not the whole story
Burned area says little about damage. The same report counts 18,385 structures destroyed by wildfires in 2025, and 16,324 of them, 88.8 per cent, were in the Southern California geographic area. The figures come from situation reports filed during the season and may differ slightly from final official numbers. For another look at 2025's severe weather, see which state had the most tornadoes in 2025.