A wildfire in Bitterroot National Forest, Montana

A wildfire on Angel Island

Wildfire is a general term which includes forest fires, grassland fires, bushfires, brush fires and any other vegetation fire in countryside areas.

Wildfires occur in every continent except Antarctica. They can occur naturally and spontaneously, but many are caused by humans, accidentally or deliberately. Fossil records and human history show that wildfires do occur at intervals. The Great Oxygenation Event and the spread of land plants made Earth a planet of fire.