Fire

Fire is a block that burns the flammable blocks around it and spreads to new spaces.

Obtaining

Fire never drops, and cannot be collected. On a server, an operator's give command is the only way to hold it as an item.

Starting a fire

Source	Where the fire goes
Flint and Steel	the space against the clicked face, if it is air
Lava, still	an air space up to two blocks above it, beside a block of wood, leaves, wool or TNT
Lightning	the struck space and up to four around it on Normal and Hard; the struck space again on each later flash, on any difficulty
A ghast fireball, or a bed used in the Nether	one in three of the spaces the explosion clears, where an opaque block is below

Fire placed on obsidian inside a finished frame becomes a Nether portal instead.

Natural generation

Fire generates in patches on the Nether's netherrack.

Usage

Crafting ingredient

Result	Recipe
Chain Helmet
Chain Chestplate
Chain Leggings
Chain Boots

Behaviour

Where fire can stand

Fire needs a full, solid, opaque block beneath it, or a flammable block beside it. It goes out at once anywhere else.

Flammable blocks

Only these blocks burn. Encouragement is how readily fire spreads into the air beside the block, and flammability how readily the block itself catches.

Block	Encouragement	Flammability
Tall Grass, including ferns	60	100
Leaves	30	60
Wool	30	60
Bookshelf	30	20
TNT	15	100
Wooden Planks	5	20
Fence	5	20
Wooden Stairs	5	20
Wood	5	5

Crafting tables, chests, doors, signs, ladders, wooden slabs and every other block do not burn.

Burning

Fire updates every 40 ticks, and on random ticks as well. Each fire has an age from 0 to 15. An update has a 1 in 3 chance to add 1 to it.

On each update, fire tries to burn each of the six blocks around it. A block catches with a chance of its flammability in 300, or in 250 directly above or below. A block that catches becomes fire, at a chance of 5 in (age + 10), and is destroyed otherwise. TNT that catches is lit instead.

Fire goes out:

• when it, or a space beside it on its own level, is rained on; see Weather#Rain;
• when nothing beside it is flammable, once its age passes 3;
• when it stands beside a flammable block but not on one, 1 update in 4 once its age reaches 15;
• when a player hits the face of a block it stands against;
• when flowing water or lava reaches it.

Fire on netherrack never goes out, and rain does not reach it.

Spreading

Fire also lights air spaces near it: any space from 1 block below it to 4 above, within 1 block across, that is air and beside a flammable block. The chance per update is ⌊(E + 40) ÷ (age + 30)⌋ + 1 in 100, where E is the highest encouragement beside that space. Two blocks above the fire it is the same figure in 200, three above in 300, and four above in 400.

Fire does not spread into a space that is rained on.

Entities

An entity in fire takes damage and catches alight; see Damage#Catching fire. A dropped item in fire is destroyed.

Data values

• Block ID: 51
• Translation key: tile.fire