A new study has found that while 2025 saw the second-smallest total area burned by wildfires since 2002 — approximately 335 million hectares — the year was marked by catastrophic fires in wealthy regions including California, Canada, Scotland, Spain, Portugal, and South Korea, where blazes caused mass evacuations, historic infrastructure losses, and record death tolls. Researchers attribute the global decline largely to the expansion of African farmland, which has fragmented landscapes and curbed the spread of large savannah fires, but warn that climate change is fuelling extreme fire-weather conditions that make blazes in populated areas far more deadly when they do occur. "2025 shows that a 'quiet' fire year globally can still be devastating," said Matthew Jones, lead author of the study and a climate scientist at the University of East Anglia (UK), pointing to a widening gap between total area burned and real-world human and economic impact.