How The U.K’s First Megafire Unleashed Nearly A Year Of Emissions

InnovationSustainabilityHow The U.K’s First Megafire Unleashed Nearly A Year Of EmissionsByJamie Hailstone,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Jamie Hailstone is a U.K-based reporter, who covers sustainability. Follow AuthorJun 02, 2026, 03:38am EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.Snowstorm over the Cairngorm Mountains from Dava Moor in Scotland. (Photo by: Jan Holm/Loop Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)Loop Images/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesA four-day ‘megafire’ last year across parts of the Highlands and Moray unleashed nearly a year of fire emissions, according to a new analysis. The study, published in Nature Geoscience, found the 2025 Dava Moor fire torched as much acreage as usually burns in an entire year in the U.K, and classed it as Britain’s first ‘megafire’.Researchers also said it released carbon equivalent to 85% of the average annual emissions from fires across the U.K from 2001 to 2021.It also found almost 85% of the fire’s carbon emissions came not from burning trees or brush, but from burning peat. The megafire is an emerging concept first used in the U.S, which refers to the size and scale of a wildfire. Lead study author Johanna Schoenecker said definitions vary, but a megafire is typically classed as larger than 10,000 hectares, or roughly 25,000 acres, in an interview. Schoenecker added the Dava Moor fire burned quickly and severely, blazing through mainly heathland and bogs, and only small patches of forest. She said peatlands are slow to build up and can take many hundreds of years to sequester large amounts of carbon. Schoenecker added the Dava Moor fire burned into the peat, releasing significant amounts of carbon, which was not immediately apparent from the surface damage. “Peat can build up over centuries or even millennia, but if it is dry enough to burn it will release carbon in a r...