Fire

Fire is a neutral non-solid block that can spread to nearby flammable blocks.

Soul fire is a turquoise variation of fire that is created when soul sand or soul soil is ignited.

Natural generation
Fire naturally generates 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 nor in the Nether Wastes biome.

Post-generation
Lava generated next to flammable blocks can naturally ignite 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.

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.

Obtaining
Fire cannot be obtained as an item under any circumstances $$, though $$ both fire and soul fire may be obtained as an item via inventory editing.

Placement


Fire can be placed using flint and steel or a fire charge. Fire ignited 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.

Burning entities
Players and many mobs burn when exposed to fire. Burning obstructs the player's view slightly and, unless the player or mob has Fire Resistance, inflicts damage at a rate of 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, 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). Players and mobs that are burning can be extinguished by rain, water or a cauldron.

Dropped items except netherite axe, netherite sword, netherite shovel, netherite pickaxe, netherite helmet, netherite chestplate, netherite leggings, netherite boots, blocks of netherite, netherite scrap, netherite ingots and ancient debris falling into fire briefly catch fire and disappear.

If a mob that can drop meat dies while on fire, it drops the cooked version of it, with the exception of fish that is dropped by polar bears or guardians and potatoes that are dropped by zombies.

Nether mobs are invulnerable to fire and cannot burn. Exceptions include skeletons, as well as piglins and hoglins.

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.

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 does not spread, even to another flammable block within the normal range.

In the following table, the higher the encouragement, the more quickly a block catches fire if the fire is available to spread there. The higher the flammability, the more quickly a block on fire burns away. These are relative values; actual flammability and burn time depends not only on these values, but on difficulty, rain, the age of the fire, and a certain amount of randomness due to block ticks, among other things. Fire spread is also reduced significantly if the flammable blocks are located in a rather humid biome. Humid biomes are swamp, mushroom island and jungle with all of their respective variants excluding jungle edge.

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 after a few seconds. 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 Block; 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: 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. Eternal fire cannot exist on the sides of these blocks.

, soul fire always burns forever.

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

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

Bees
Lighting 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.

ID




Trivia

 * Sometimes, in survival, when the player walks into a fire briefly and walk 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. This fire is incapable of spreading.
 * 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, several 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.
 * Soul fire (or at least a blue fire) really exists and is caused by the burning of sulfur. Soul soil and soul sand, blocks on which soul fire is created, probably contain quantities of this element, as they are similar to volcanic ash.

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 $$ (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, but eventually extinguish.