I'm not sure how meaningful stats are from the 20s to 40s given the forested vs populated area of the country was so massively different. There was simply more

I'm not sure how meaningful stats are from the 20s to 40s given the forested vs populated area of the country was so massively different. There was simply more forest to burn. FWIW my great-grandparents cleared their farm in Alberta (Innisfail area) from bush/forest in the 20s. Huge areas that are just wide open heavily settled farm fields now were aspen parkland and forest.