There are about 9,000 forest fires recorded annually in Canada. Most are small, burning just a few hectares. Some are huge, raging for weeks and consuming 100,000 hectares or more. (One hectare is equal to 2.47 acres). An average of 2.1 million hectares is burned every year, virtually all of it in the boreal forest (the eastern hardwoods and the west coast rain forest are almost immune to fire). In comparison, about 800,000 hectares of Canadian forest are cut down every year.