Forest fires covering 8,450 square kilometers of BC landscape is indeed tragic.  

To put it in perspective, the worst forest fire in Canada occurred in 1919. It happened in Alberta just south of Fort McMurray. The fire burned about 30,000 sq kilometres of timber as well as the town of Lac La Biche.

In 1894, wildfire around the Great Lakes killed 500 people in the town of Hinckley.