Fire (2024)

Fire is a non-solid block that can spread to nearby flammable blocks and destroy them.

Soul fire is a dimmer turquoise variation of fire that is created when soul sand or soul soil is ignited. Soul fire deals more damage than normal fire and does not spread.

Obtaining[]

Fire cannot be obtained as an item under any circ*mstances in Java Edition, though in Bedrock Edition both fire and soul fire may be obtained as an item via inventory editing.

Natural generation[]

Fire naturally generates in fire patches across the terrain of the Nether. Soul fire generates exclusively in soul sand valley biomes in the Nether. However, it exclusively generates on soul soil; it does not generate on soul sand within either the same biome^[1] nor in the nether wastes biome.^[2]

Fire also generates on top of netherrack in some treasure room bastion remnants. Soul fire also generates in ancient cities.

In the End, fire generates on bedrock blocks on top of end spikes, at the same location as the end crystals.

Post-generation[]

Lava generated next to flammable blocks can naturally cause fires.

Fire spreads quickly across flammable blocks, and can spontaneously ignite when flammable blocks are near lava, even though many blocks that should be flammable cannot catch fire from nearby lava.

Lightning strikes can also set fires, regardless of whether they are created naturally, redirected to lightning rods, summoned by a trident enchanted with Channeling, or created using the /summon command.

Placing an end crystal on bedrock or obsidian in the End causes fire to appear at the end crystal's location.

The explosion from sleeping in a bed in the Nether or the End creates fire, as does the explosion of a ghast fireball or the impact of a blaze fireball. Using a charged respawn anchor in the Overworld or the End also creates fire from the explosion.

Usage[]

Placement[]

Fire can be placed using flint and steel or a fire charge. Fire created on soul sand or soul soil becomes soul fire.

When placed, a fire burns for a short and randomly determined amount of time. If nothing flammable is adjacent to it, the flames die out. Water that touches fire extinguishes it.

It cannot be placed suspended in midair, even with commands.^[3]

Burning entities[]

Players and many mobs burn when exposed to fire. Burning obstructs the player's view slightly. While inside a fire block, the fire inflicts damage at a rate of 1 per half-second unless the player or mob has Fire Resistance or a total Fire Protection of 7 or higher.‌^{[BE only]} When the player is on fire outside the fire block, they take damage at 1 per second. This is the same rate that the player gains health in Peaceful difficulty, so burning alone cannot kill the player in this mode. Soul fire deals damage at a rate of 2 per half-second, making it more dangerous than normal fire. After leaving a fire source, the player or mob continues burning for some time depending on how long it was exposed to the fire (stored in a Fire tag shared by all entities).^{[more information needed]} Players and mobs that are burning can be extinguished by powder snow, rain, water or a cauldron.

Most dropped items that are in fire briefly catch fire and disappear. This includes the item forms of blocks that would not be flammable if placed, including obsidian. The only exceptions are these netherite-related items: netherite tools and weapons, netherite armor, blocks of netherite, netherite scrap, netherite ingots, and ancient debris.

If a mob able to drop meat dies while on fire, it drops the cooked version of it, with the exception of fish that is dropped by polar bears‌^{[JE only]} or guardians. This also applies to the zombie's uncommon potato drop; if a zombie dies while on fire and should drop a potato, it becomes a baked potato.‌^{[JE only]}

Most Nether mobs are invulnerable to fire and cannot burn. Exceptions include skeletons, as well as endermen, piglins, piglin brutes, and hoglins. Zoglins are also invulnerable to fire.

Burning is not considered a status effect and therefore cannot be cured by milk.

Spread[]

Fire spreads over flammable surfaces and can climb up walls, across floors and ceilings, and over small gaps. More precisely, a fire block can turn any air block that is adjacent to a flammable block into a fire block. This can happen at a distance of up to one block downward, one block sideways (including diagonals), and four blocks upward of the original fire block (not the block the fire is on/next to). Therefore, if the player is using fire to build a fireplace, caution is needed. Blocks in the way do not prevent fire from igniting blocks above it—so even if the player protects a wooden roof with cobblestone between it and the fire, the fire ignores that cobblestone.

Fire spreads from a still lava block similarly: any air block one above and up to one block sideways (including diagonals) or two above and two blocks sideways (including diagonals) that is adjacent to a flammable block may be turned into a fire block.

Unlike normal fire, soul fire cannot spread and does not burn any flammable blocks nearby.

Fire that naturally spreads into a valid nether portal frame activates the portal.

Flammable blocks[]

Fire can spread onto and burn away any flammable block (or in the case of TNT, ignite it). On the other hand, a fire that is not adjacent to any flammable block and not on top of a forever-burning block does not spread, even to another flammable block within the normal range.

In the following table, the higher the ignite odds, the more quickly a block catches fire if the fire is available to spread there. The higher the burn odds, the more quickly a block on fire burns away. These are relative values; actual ignite odds and burn time depends not only on these values, but on difficulty, rain, the age of the fire, the direction of the block relative to the fire, and multiple random values including how long the fire waits between block ticks and further checks based on the previous factors. Fire spread is reduced if tries to spread to a block more two blocks higher than itself. Fire spread is further reduced by 50% if the flammable blocks in a humid biome (swamp, mushroom fields and jungle, excluding sparse jungle).

Non-flammable blocks[]

Non-flammable blocks can be lit but do not burn away, and such fire does not spread. Non-flammable blocks other than netherrack or magma blocks extinguish themselves quickly. In the End, bedrock also does not extinguish itself.

If a block is a part of a flammable material, it catches fire from lava. However, certain blocks do not burn away:

Extinguishing[]

Fire burns out after a while when on a non-flammable block other than netherrack or magma blocks; however, punching or hitting the side of a burning block extinguishes the fire on that side, making the Fire extinguished sound (see below). Hitting fire while holding a tool does not reduce the tool's durability. Placing blocks on the fire also extinguishes it. Water and lava extinguish fires that they flow into, and thrown splash and lingering water bottles extinguish fires in the block hit and the four blocks horizontally surrounding it.

Mobs on fire are extinguished when in water or in a cauldron containing it. In the latter case, one layer of water disappears.

Fire extinguishes more quickly if nothing flammable is present, and soon after it consumes a flammable block immediately beneath it.

• Fire has an age property that determines how it extinguishes, ranging from age 0 when the fire is set, and growing to age 15. For fire older than age 3, if nothing flammable is adjacent to the fire, or if the block below doesn't have a solid top surface, the fire is extinguished by the next block tick. At age 15, as long as there isn't a flammable block below the fire, a block tick has a ¹⁄₄ chance to extinguish the fire.

If a fire is exposed to rain, it extinguishes quickly.

• Rain affects fire if it falls directly onto the fire, or into the four adjacent blocks. Specifically, no matter the age, any block tick has a 20–65% chance of rain extinguishing the fire, depending on the fire's age: 20 percent plus 3 percentage points per age of the fire.

Soul fire never extinguishes unless punched or when it receives a block update and finds there is no soul soil or soul sand below it.

Eternal fire[]

When lit, netherrack and magma blocks maintain fire forever, unless extinguished by any method except rain. Bedrock in the End also burns eternally. Soul fire burns eternally anywhere. Eternal fire cannot exist on the sides of these blocks.

The blocks that can support eternal fire are defined per-dimension, in the #infiniburn_overworld, #infiniburn_nether, and #infiniburn_end block tags.

If /gamerule doFireTick is false, fire lasts forever until it is put out by the player, and does not spread or affect flammable blocks.

Bees[]

Setting fire to a beehive or bee nest causes the contained bees to be ejected from the block.

Piglins[]

Soul fire repels piglins. Like hoglins, they are not fire-resistant, which is unique among Nether mobs.

Sounds[]

Generic[]

Java Edition: ^{[sound 1]}

Bedrock Edition (Normal fire):

Bedrock Edition (Soul fire):

Unique[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Block states[]

Java Edition:
Fire:

Bedrock Edition:
Fire and Soul Fire:

History[]

Java Edition Indev
0.31		20100109			Added fire.
					The model of fire currently does not render the back faces; faces have to be seen from the front to be rendered.
					Fire is placed directly like a block. It is not known if its texture was any different.
		20100110			Lava now sets fire to flammable materials.
					All items and mobs can now catch fire.
					Fire is now placed by flint and steel.
		20100125-2			Fire now has particle effects.
		20100129			Ores can now be smelted by using fire on dropped items.
20100219					Ores can no longer be smelted by using fire on dropped items with the introduction of furnaces.
Unknown
?					Fire has the "wood" material assigned to it for sound playback, which could be encountered by placing it with its item form, or by walking on top of it in certain cases or setups.
Java Edition Infdev
20100617-2					Added a backup fire texture for if the animation could not be loaded.
20100624					Changed the fire backup texture to read "FIRE TEX! HNST", which means "Fire texture! Honest".
Unknown
?					Previously, it was possible for fire to exist without any real attachments to any blocks, resulting in it being completely invisible but still being a danger. This has been fixed such that it can no longer be placed in these positions nor come to be in one via changes to surrounding blocks, as it will immediately delete upon finding itself in such a situation.
Java Edition Alpha
v1.2.0		preview			Fire now generates as fire patches in the Nether.
v1.2.6					Lava can now cause surrounding flammable blocks to burn. Forest fires may start spontaneously if an above-ground lava pool is generated among trees during a biome's creation.
Java Edition Beta
1.2					Fire now uses two similar textures, rather than just one.
					A second placeholder texture for fire has been added to terrain.png corresponding to the second fire texture.
1.2_02					The ability for blocks to burn forever has been removed. Previously, a non-netherrack flammable block, like wood, may burn continuously when its sides are surrounded by nonflammable blocks, like stone or dirt.
1.6		Test Build 3			Fire spreading has been severely nerfed — infinite fire spread has been disabled.[4]
Java Edition
1.2.1		12w06a			When the player hits fire in Creative, the block under the fire is no longer removed.
1.4.2		12w32a			Added the game rule doFireTick.
		12w34a			Fire now spreads differently based on difficulty.
		12w40a			Firespread has been slightly nerfed again to prevent infinitely spreading fires.
1.5		13w02a			The texture of fire is now accessible. Before, the texture was hidden in the code and not accessible by any normal bases.[more information needed]
?					Mobs such as zombie pigmen no longer appear to be on fire in cases where mobs susceptible to fire would be.
1.8		14w17a			The model of fire has been changed slightly - the sides are completely erect rather than slanted inward, however, the back faces of fire are still not visible.
		14w25a			The model of fire is now incorrectly affected by directional shading. One of the inner planes (furthest to the south) is now also missing.
		14w28b			The model of fire has been changed, fixing the missing internal plane. However, it is still less symmetrical overall than it was prior to 14w25a, which is best seen looking from directly above.
		14w31a			Fire is no longer affected by directional shading. Fire now uses the wool sound rather than the wood sound if broken through certain means or stepped on.
1.9		15w31a			Extra planes have been to the model of fire in the back. However, the outer texture planes appear to foot by a pixel.
					The block states alt and flip of fire have been removed, and the state upper has been changed to the byte state up. However, the behavior of fire has remained unchanged.
		15w33c			The positioning of the outer planes of fire has been fixed.
		15w38a			Fire's chance of extinguishing in the rain on its block tick has been decreased from 100% to a chance from 0–45% depending on its age state.
		15w49a			Fire's chance of extinguishing in the rain on its block tick has been increased to 20–65% depending on its age state.
1.12		17w06a			Fire now burns indefinitely on magma blocks.
1.13		17w47a			Prior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 51.
September 28, 2019					Soul Fire shown unnamed as part of soul sand valley biome at Minecon 2019.
December 3, 2019					Maria Lemón confirms that fire set on soul sand will not become soul fire.
1.16		20w06a			Added soul fire.
					Fire no longer burns items.[5]
		20w07a			The texture of soul fire has been changed. The color channel of transparent pixels is now filled to black.
					Normal fire burns items again, and soul fire now burns items.
		20w10a			Fire now has a proper hitbox like all other blocks.
					Fire now produces fire particles when destroyed.
					Fire can no longer be put out with swords or tridents in Creative mode.
					The blockstates and info of fire can now be properly read via F3.
					Fire can now be modified using debug sticks.
		20w11a			Loot tables have been added for fire.
					Fire no longer produces particles when destroyed.
					Soul sand is now capable of supporting fire on its top surface,[6] however this is regular fire, not soul fire.[7]
		20w12a			Fire lit on top of soul sand is now soul fire.
					A dedicated block tag is now used to determine what blocks support soul fire.
		20w16a			Fire now generates in some bastion remnants.
		Pre-release 7			Creative players inside of fire now permanently are displayed as being in fire for the period spent within it rather than it intermittently flashing.
		?			Added respawn anchor, which create fire when blow up.
1.19		Deep Dark Experimental Snapshot 1			Soul fire now generate as part of ancient cities.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.1.0					Added fire. It was invisible at the time.[8]
v0.3.3					Fire can no longer spread or be created due to a bug in fire spreading mechanics that causes fire to spread to any block.
v0.7.0					Fire can once again be created, and now has better spreading mechanics.
					Flint and steel is now able to place fire.
					Fire currently, at times, renders incorrectly.[9]
v0.7.1					Fire now renders correctly.
					Fire now burns indefinitely on netherrack.
v0.7.3					Undead mobs now actually catch fire in sunlight, rather than just taking damage.
v0.8.0		build 1			Burning mobs now turn orange and emit large fire particles.
		build 4			Fire now ignites TNT more aggressively.
v0.9.0		build 2			Fire now burns out faster in jungle and roofed forest biomes.
v0.11.0		build 9			Attacks from burning mobs can now catch fire to the victim.
		build 14			The burning animation has been removed from Creative mode completely.
v0.12.1		build 1			Burning mobs now have a sizzling particle effect once extinguished.
Unknown
?					Fire has the "wood" material assigned to it for sound playback, which could be encountered by placing it with its item form, or by walking on top of it in certain cases or setups.[10]
Bedrock Edition
1.2.0		beta 1.2.0.2			The unique fire animation has been removed from burning mobs (excluding blazes), and replaced with a stretched burning animation like that on Java Edition.
1.16.0		beta 1.16.0.51			Added soul fire.
		beta 1.16.0.59			Fire lit on top of soul sand is now soul fire.
		beta 1.16.0.63			Soul fire is now created when randomTickSpeed is set to 0.
					Soul fire is now created when doFireTick is set to false.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added fire.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added fire.

Fire "items"[]

The following content is transcluded from Technical blocks/Fire.

Appearances[]

Fire[]

Java Edition Indev
0.31		20100109			The fire item is completely invisible in inventories, when held in first person view or as a dropped item.
		20100130			The fire item now uses this texture in inventories, when held in first person view or as a dropped item.
					NOTE: the fire item was animated in this version. However, due to this animation being automatically generated by the game rather than being a defined animated texture file, and there currently being no animation of this uploaded yet, the provided image is stationary.
Java Edition Alpha
?					The fire item now uses the aforementioned texture when held in third person.
Java Edition
1.4.2		12w34a			The fire item now uses the aforementioned texture when in an item frame.
1.5		13w02a			The fire item is now completely invisible in inventories.
					The fire item causes a game crash when held in first or third person view, as a dropped item or when in an item frame.
					This is due to major texture storage changes in this version.
		13w02b			The fire item now uses this texture in inventories, when held in first or third person view, as a dropped item or when in an item frame.
					The texture does not loop properly due to MC-17701.
					NOTE: the fire item was animated in this version. However, an animated version of the texture is yet to be uploaded.
1.6.2		13w24b			The fire item now uses this texture in inventories, when held in first or third person view, as a dropped item or when in an item frame.
					NOTE: the fire item was animated in this version. However, an animated version of the texture is yet to be uploaded.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.1.0					The fire item uses this texture when held in first and third person view.
					The fire item is completely invisible in inventories or as a dropped item.
v0.1.3					The fire item now uses this texture when held in first and third person view.
v0.3.3					The fire item now uses this texture when in the hotbar.
					Items which were not defined in gui_blocks.png render with a red background in the inventory, including fire.
v0.7.0					[verify] The fire item now uses this texture in inventories, when held in first or third person view or as a dropped item.
					It still renders with the red background in the inventory and the hotbar.
v0.8.0		build 1			Items such as fire no longer render with a red background in the inventory.
					When held in first or third person view, fire uses the same dimensions as the current fire placeholder texture, only rendering the center 6×8 pixels.
v0.10.0		build 1			The fire item now uses the fire placeholder texture when held in first or third person view.
Unknown
?					Fire once again has the full 16×16 dimensions when held in first or third person view.
?					It does not appear animated in the player's hand.[11]

Soul Fire[]

Bedrock Edition
1.16.0		?			[verify] The soul fire item uses this texture.
?					It is not animated as a held item, nor in an item frame.[12]

Names[]

Java Edition

Item names did not exist prior to Beta 1.0.

• Beta 1.0 - 14w21b: Fire
• (As block name, item does not exist) 14w25a and onwards: Fire

Bedrock Edition

Uncraftable items did not have visible displayed names prior to v0.5.0 alpha.

• v0.5.0 alpha -?: Fire

Issues[]

Issues relating to "Fire" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia[]

• Sometimes, in Survival, when the player walks into a fire briefly and walks out quickly enough, the player takes minor damage, but does not stay on fire.
• Fire uses two texture files, one for the inner fire and one for the outer fire.
• Each end crystal continuously generates a block of fire at its location, if the crystal is placed or generated in the End.
• While soul fire was not announced until MINECON Live 2019, a similar-looking blue fire was seen in the spin-off game Minecraft: Story Mode, years earlier.
  • Minecraft Dungeons also has a similar feature whenever a wraith attacks.
    • There is also a purple fire seen in Minecraft Dungeons.
• Soul fire can not be placed on any other block other than soul sand or soul soil, even if it's placed with /setblock.‌^{[Java Edition only]}
• Both types of fire^[verify] have the third highest number of possible block state combinations, at 512, behind note block's 800 and redstone dust's 1296.

Bedrock Edition[]

• Burning mobs have the same animation as Java, yet differently scaled.
• The fire spreading mechanic is based on how it would be prior to Java Edition Beta 1.6.
• The sides of the fire model in this edition are rotated like in versions before Java Edition 1.8.
• When the player is on fire, there is a different burning animation on the screen than in Java Edition (it partially obstructs view when looking downward).
• Players with Fire Resistance do not visibly burn when in fire sources.
• Soul fire can be placed on other blocks with /setblock, but eventually extinguish.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Gallery[]

Screenshots[]

• 

  A house that has caught fire because it was too close to a lava lake, and made out of wood.

• 

  A burning zombie in Bedrock Edition emitting unique fire particles.

• 

  A natural fire started by lava flowing into a trees.

• 

  A fire spreading across several trees.

• 

  Fire as seen in a burning forest.

• 

  Invisible fire as seen in early Pocket Edition, and could burn up non-flammable blocks such as stone and dirt.

• 

  Animated render of the mob burning fire.

• 

  Soul fire on soul soil.

• 

  Forest and lava lake before the fire.

• 

  Forest and lava lake during the fire.

• 

  Forest and lava lake after the fire.

• 

  Naturally generated soul fire in an ancient city.

• 

  Lots of fire.

• 

  A house on fire.

References[]